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Realm has excellent marketing, but being a closed source third party SDK disqualifies it as anything I would recommend for my company to use. I've had to deal

Realm has excellent marketing, but being a closed source third party SDK disqualifies it as anything I would recommend for my company to use. I've had to deal with enough pain from closed source libraries from the likes of Google and others. Closed-source prevents me from adopting a new platform until the vendor gets around to porting it, and only if it fits with their strategy. Also a middleware-only company is liable to be bought out, and then closed. Example: Parse.

deleted 10y ago
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yAak 10y ago
What part of it is closed source? https://github.com/realm/realm-cocoa https://github.com/realm/realm-cocoa https://github.com/realm/realm-java https://github.com/realm/realm-java https://github.com/realm/realm-js https://github.com/realm/realm-js https://github.com/realm/realm-dotnet https://github.com/realm/realm-dotnet Edit: Apparently not the guts of it, my bad :(
- mahyarm 10y ago
  The core C++ part. They plan to open source it later, but who knows what will happen in the meantime.
  - mwcampbell 10y ago
    Where did you read that they plan to open-source it later?
    - mahyarm 10y ago
      FAQ time: I see references to a “core” in the code, what is that? The core is referring to our internal C++ storage engine. It is not currently open-source but we do plan on open-sourcing it also under the Apache 2.0 license once we’ve had a chance to clean it up, rename it, and finalize major features inside of it. In the meantime, its binary releases are made available under the Realm Core (TightDB) Binary License. https://realm.io/docs/objc/latest/#faq https://realm.io/docs/objc/latest/#faq
      - mwcampbell 10y ago
        Ah, OK. I always assumed that the core was closed-source for business reasons.
        SandyAndyPerth 10y ago
        It's a LOT of work to open-source something which has been evolving at a huge pace and is as complex as the Realm core. Even just announcing the work of the Xamarin C# team that I'm on got some complaints from the public about this representing a "loss of focus". So yes, you could say there was a "business reason" of protecting the core team whilst they got to 1.0. If you look at the C++ portions included in most of the Realm open source you can see we have moved code gradually into the open source codebase. There's not yet an official C++ API either for the same reason - it would lock in too many decisions and tie up the team. (disclaimer - these are opinions and observations from a remote contractor, not Realm management!)
        flipgimble 10y ago
        I don't believe that complexity or size of code really affects the difficulty of open sourcing a project. Its more likely the culture and daily development practices that are difficult to change, but probably not as difficult as the business strategy we're all wondering about.
argonaut 10y ago
To add on to this, it's also a pure tech services play, which IMO is generally a bit harder to monetize than a product company, but generally a lot easier to sell in an acquisition. Which doesn't make this sitatuion any better.

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yAak 10y ago

What part of it is closed source? https://github.com/realm/realm-cocoa https://github.com/realm/realm-cocoa https://github.com/realm/realm-java https://github.com/realm/realm-java https://github.com/realm/realm-js https://github.com/realm/realm-js https://github.com/realm/realm-dotnet https://github.com/realm/realm-dotnet Edit: Apparently not the guts of it, my bad :(

mahyarm 10y ago
The core C++ part. They plan to open source it later, but who knows what will happen in the meantime.
- mwcampbell 10y ago
  Where did you read that they plan to open-source it later?
  - mahyarm 10y ago
    FAQ time: I see references to a “core” in the code, what is that? The core is referring to our internal C++ storage engine. It is not currently open-source but we do plan on open-sourcing it also under the Apache 2.0 license once we’ve had a chance to clean it up, rename it, and finalize major features inside of it. In the meantime, its binary releases are made available under the Realm Core (TightDB) Binary License. https://realm.io/docs/objc/latest/#faq https://realm.io/docs/objc/latest/#faq
    - mwcampbell 10y ago
      Ah, OK. I always assumed that the core was closed-source for business reasons.
      - SandyAndyPerth 10y ago
        It's a LOT of work to open-source something which has been evolving at a huge pace and is as complex as the Realm core. Even just announcing the work of the Xamarin C# team that I'm on got some complaints from the public about this representing a "loss of focus". So yes, you could say there was a "business reason" of protecting the core team whilst they got to 1.0. If you look at the C++ portions included in most of the Realm open source you can see we have moved code gradually into the open source codebase. There's not yet an official C++ API either for the same reason - it would lock in too many decisions and tie up the team. (disclaimer - these are opinions and observations from a remote contractor, not Realm management!)
        flipgimble 10y ago
        I don't believe that complexity or size of code really affects the difficulty of open sourcing a project. Its more likely the culture and daily development practices that are difficult to change, but probably not as difficult as the business strategy we're all wondering about.

argonaut 10y ago

To add on to this, it's also a pure tech services play, which IMO is generally a bit harder to monetize than a product company, but generally a lot easier to sell in an acquisition. Which doesn't make this sitatuion any better.