To open source or not to open source? That is the question!

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JAB Creations
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To open source or not to open source? That is the question!

Post by JAB Creations »

A blog friend commented on my latest post today asking if the CMS I'm working on is open source. I've read a lot about the benefits of open source but the big fat issue at hand is my only bread and butter: by opening what I am working on what my future business will rely on will be easily accessible to any one who is capable of using copy and paste. I am stranded in Florida not living here by choice and there just isn't any PHP/MySQL web community/economy/etc. The only way I can see getting myself out of a rut is by building an online business that will include the CMS I'm working on. Have other people been able to profit from their own work even if part, most, or even all of it at one point became open source? What are examples of where people were both successful and unsuccessful in such a pursuit?

There are of course other issues which are secondary. First and foremost I'm a designer learning development, not vice versa. Frameworks are kryptonite to my coding ethics and I know little if anything about how open source projects work as far as online collaboration is concerned. Ultimately this will become Version 2.9 of my website, the twenty-ninth version and the "JAB" in JAB Creations stands for my initials...so in effect while I'm open to people collaborating and using my work to an extent I do not wish to have the goals manipulated in to something else. I imagine that ends up becoming an issue of how open source project sites are constructed.

I'm open to arguments both for and against but right now I have to presume what I'm doing will be my only source of bread and butter in the future.
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php_east
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Re: To open source or not to open source? That is the question!

Post by php_east »

i have been doing open source for more than a couple years. it does not bring in enough for bread let alone butter. what i have observed maybe be beneficial to you and others trodding down this road.
1. by and large, open source is perceived as free i.e. money not required.
2. if they like the product, clients may be wiling to part with money, but only with what can fit into their trouser pocket.
3. as soon as your product is recognised as good, another party comes along, with the same ++.
4. donations so not work.
5. that the product is expected to be free isn't so bad, support is expected to be free as well, and that is bad.
6. large organisations support open source. a single owned business has no chance to compete with corporate open source. yes, there are many kinds of open source, people quite often forget that. a lone coder releasing an open source product, compared to a large concern releasing the same is quite obviously going to be different.
7. only the rich wants customised solutions, and if you have rich clients, then its safe to do open source, with the clients permission.
8. the money in open source is really in support. and in customisation. if you are a producer of open source, and alone, you will soon consider shoe shining to pay the rent.
9. most people who jump into the open source are after fame, not fortune. open source developers fiercely defend their aim as being for 'community', and not for profit. and they are right, in a way.
to sum up, i would say, it is about time developers realise, that open source is here to stay, and that the opportunity lies in utilising those very sources or re-sources available, to meet clients needs. that is not to say devlopement works in open source should not be done by a sole propietor, or a small team. indeed i think very much it should, but for the sake of progress, and fun, and human intellectual progress, but not for money. if you *think* you can make money on open source, you may be able to pull through, there are always execeptions to the rule.

personally, i took the exact opposite direction. i produce open source products, just a few, and priced the product incredibly and unbelievably high. my message to my client is 'you can look at the source, free, but if you want to use it, it's not cheap'. and it is also implied, 'if you want cheap or free, you can google for download links'. it works for me.

yes, i do not have 1 million downloads in 6 months, but i don't need that. i need bread and butter. :P
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Re: To open source or not to open source? That is the question!

Post by pickle »

If you're writing it in PHP, people are going to have access to the source anyway. Now, not releasing it as open-source does give you some protection, but it certainly won't stop people from looking through the code to figure out how you did something, nor will it stop clients from going into the code if they want.

From what I've seen, organizations/people/companies that involve themselves with open source software get their money from support & customization, not the central product itself.
Real programmers don't comment their code. If it was hard to write, it should be hard to understand.
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