Posted on July 14, 2010 by Simon Phipps
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While their marketing guy may claim “that overall, Sugar 6 is an open source product from an open source company”, it’s hard to see how they are anything other than a proprietary software company who share some code with a related open source project. Claiming to be “an open source company” seems an unacceptable use of the open source brand to me.
Open Core is bad for you.
Filed under: Links, Open Core | 4 Comments »
Posted on July 7, 2010 by Simon Phipps
The conference landscape evolves constantly. Old events pass away, new ones arrive and it’s good to get pointers to know what’s worthwhile. I can recommend this year’s Open World Forum, happening in Paris on September 30 and October 1.It’s a volunteer-run conference for the open source and free software community and covers multiple tracks and events both for business and community interests.
Unusually for such a broad event, admission is completely free of charge and you’ll have the chance to listen to speakers such as James Governor, Eben Moglen, Matt Asay and many more. I’m honoured to be chairing the opening plenary session on September 30th.
With such a broad and rich agenda and hosted in such an appealing and central location it’s easy to find reasons to attend and hard to see why not. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Filed under: Events | 2 Comments »
Posted on July 7, 2010 by Simon Phipps
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This post, effectively a manifesto for the next generation of packaging, is well worth reading as Matt articulately describes the same issues that led the OpenSolaris team to develop
IPS.
His solution differs – not one ring to bind them all, but rather a decoupling of cooperating package management approaches so that appropriate solutions can address specific needs. This is a call to order that deserves a serious, collective, non-partisan response.
Filed under: Open Source, Technology | 4 Comments »
Posted on July 6, 2010 by Simon Phipps
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Lovely Woot piece today, pointing out that if Woot quoted AP the way AP quoted Woot, they would demand payment. AP’s position is ridiculous becuase it assumes AP is in some way a different class of publisher to the rest of us. Rather hoping Woot don’t let it rest here…
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I never upgraded my Nokia phones for exactly this reason. I hope Nokia is getting the message; this is exactly the same issue that made Debian and Ubuntu superior to old-fashioned Unix. Package management is the killer app for mobile devices, at least it is for now.
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This seems to be the “open core of open data” and it’s so obviously wrong that we need to make a huge fuss about it here in the UK.
Filed under: Links | Comments Off on ☞ Easy Access
Posted on July 5, 2010 by Simon Phipps
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Pamela picks up both my article and Mark’s and asks the obvious question. For the record, Mark is wrong to assert that I think only copyleft licenses are proper open source licenses. As for the “what does freedom mean” question Pamela is asking, that one will run and run and is at the root of the division between the BSD-ish and GPL-ish approaches.
- Open Core Is Not A Crime
“I appreciate why advocates of software freedom are wary of open core. It does perpetuate proprietary software licensing, and it does so via open source. But that does not make it a crime. And a considerable amount of code has been contributed to the commons by open core vendors. Meanwhile even those that would wish to do something to remedy the situation are without the means to do so. Hence the endless and futile debate.”
Filed under: Links, Open Source | Comments Off on ☞ For A Topic That’s A “Futile Debate”, A Lot Of People Seem Interested
Posted on July 4, 2010 by Simon Phipps
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Important explanation of why the patent thicket around video formats on the internet is a threat to both democracy and innovation. Worth your time to read this.
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I am totally amazed this was not already the policy.
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“We decided from the outset to set the formula for our bars-of-signal strength indicator to make the iPhone look good — to make it look as if it “gets more bars”. That decision has now bitten us on our ass.”
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I remember Monty telling me that a major motivation for his own business ventures was to ensure the MySQL community was able to retain key members rtaher than having them move to competitors like IBM, Microsoft and Oracle. Each new venture makes that goal more achievable. Project continuity is turning out to be proven value of the open source model.
Filed under: Links | 1 Comment »
Posted on July 1, 2010 by Simon Phipps
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I hope to be able to participate in this activity, if only to ensure that it does not become a validation for the practice of using “contributor agreements” by corporations “hosting” open source projects. Contributor agreements are bad for communities, because they give one community member more rights than everyone else. They are perhaps justifiable if the entity aggregating everyone’s copyright is acting on behalf of the whole community democratically (such as a non-profit foundation), but otherwise they are the genetic marker for a community with issues.
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One explanation for the significant Amazon down-time on Tuesday could be that they were switching from S3 to S4 as their storage technology. Possibly successfully.
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Mårten Mickos responds to my criticisms of open core in a thoughtful posting.
Filed under: Links | Comments Off on ☞ Another Harmony
Posted on June 30, 2010 by Simon Phipps
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“just as we shouldn’t worry about the lack of “billion dollar” pure play open source software firms, we should also not fall sway to the complaints of companies who are being disrupted by these models, about how all that money they make is somehow “disappearing” if the government doesn’t come in and protect their business model” — I might even go so far as to assert that a billion-dollar open source company would be the sign that your software freedom was at risk…
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“Why isn’t the open crowd more open-minded?” — Another person observing the indisputable fact that the open source and free software worlds are rife with sectarianism. To answer the question, it is a consequence of the passion people have combined with the nature of the issue and the one fact no-one feels free to seriously mention, the fact that much of the brilliance in the community is a consequence of the focus that Aspergers delivers.
Filed under: Links | Comments Off on ☞ Open Source Dynamics
Posted on June 29, 2010 by Simon Phipps
The open core model is being feted as the new default open source business model. But I assert it does not deliver and sustain the principle that delivers cost savings and flexibility to the customer – software freedom. As a consequence, businesses who live-or-die by open core risk the fate of Compiere ERP unless they can manage the incredibly delicate balance their customers will discover they demand. Mårten Mickos and Andrew Lampitt may disagree, but I assert that open core is bad for business. Read more on ComputerWorld UK.
Filed under: Open Source | Tagged: ComputerWorldUK | Comments Off on ✍ Open Core: Bad For Software Freedom
Posted on June 29, 2010 by Simon Phipps
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“Why isn’t the open crowd more open-minded?” — Another person observing the indisputable fact that the open source and free software worlds are rife with sectarianism. To answer the question, it is a consequence of the passion people have combined with the nature of the issue and the one fact no-one feels free to seriously mention, the fact that much of the brilliance in the community is a consequence of the focus that Aspergers delivers.
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This has been an important meeting place for legislators from southern Europe in previous years and I anticipate it will once again be a crucial venue for the advancement of political agendas implementing open source strategies.
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A venn diagram that proves Doctor Who is in fact the ultimate scifi story.
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Glyn’s conclusion is “not yet” but the rest of his analysis certainly rings true for me.
Filed under: Links | 1 Comment »
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