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Thank you for signing up for a trial license, and thank you for the mention in your recent blog post. It's interesting you chose MySQL as an example, since the

by asnyder 16y ago

Thank you for signing up for a trial license, and thank you for the mention in your recent blog post. It's interesting you chose MySQL as an example, since they in fact didn't open-source everything, the Enterprise stuff as I recall was/is still closed. Don't get me wrong, we would open source the core if we could, the problem we have with that is that we're not large enough to fend off a competing framework from implementing or cherry picking our technology, whether it's a direct copy, or a derivation. Once that's done, what's the incentive for anyone to try NOLOH? The more established tool may not feel the same, but on a comparison grid they would still be able to check off whatever feature we provide. They may not have the vision, and the experience won't be the same, but for many users that won't matter.

jacquesm 16y ago
I can see several possible routes out of that swamp: - the ransom model - find an investor that is able to fend off a competing framework in the marketplace (drupal has raised a fair amount of money on top of an open framework) - take the plunge and drop licensing as your income stream in favor of another model The reason why I picked MySQL is because I think they're the poster child for the situation you're in. At this point you're trying to sell bibles to the satanists, you are aiming a closed source product squarely at the most die hard fanatic open source portion of the market. The money is in the services, the (enterprise) support and the fame & glory related income (speaking engagements, that sort of thing), and if you want an enterprise version that technically should be classed as a freemium model. The road you're on right now I can see enough frustration building on both sides of the divide (wannabe NOLOH users that insist on open source and yourselves) that at some point someone might just get up and build it. Then you've got even bigger problems. Open source is an ecosystem, if you want to play around in that ecosystem (and that's where you are) you can try to adapt to the ecosystem or you can - by virtue of the quality of your product and your unique value proposition - try to adapt the ecosystem to you. Entities that resist the general trends and conventions in an ecosystem are usually called food ;) I'm not aware of any company that has successfully managed to do that outside of the CAD/CAM world (varicad, specifically) and even that is not strictly speaking a developer tool. If NOLOH is as great as it seems to be then the open source route would probably be the more profitable one in the longer term, even if in the shorter term it would mean a complete loss of license income. The 'ransom' model might get you over that hump.

by asnyder 16y ago

jacquesm 16y ago

I can see several possible routes out of that swamp: - the ransom model - find an investor that is able to fend off a competing framework in the marketplace (drupal has raised a fair amount of money on top of an open framework) - take the plunge and drop licensing as your income stream in favor of another model The reason why I picked MySQL is because I think they're the poster child for the situation you're in. At this point you're trying to sell bibles to the satanists, you are aiming a closed source product squarely at the most die hard fanatic open source portion of the market. The money is in the services, the (enterprise) support and the fame & glory related income (speaking engagements, that sort of thing), and if you want an enterprise version that technically should be classed as a freemium model. The road you're on right now I can see enough frustration building on both sides of the divide (wannabe NOLOH users that insist on open source and yourselves) that at some point someone might just get up and build it. Then you've got even bigger problems. Open source is an ecosystem, if you want to play around in that ecosystem (and that's where you are) you can try to adapt to the ecosystem or you can - by virtue of the quality of your product and your unique value proposition - try to adapt the ecosystem to you. Entities that resist the general trends and conventions in an ecosystem are usually called food ;) I'm not aware of any company that has successfully managed to do that outside of the CAD/CAM world (varicad, specifically) and even that is not strictly speaking a developer tool. If NOLOH is as great as it seems to be then the open source route would probably be the more profitable one in the longer term, even if in the shorter term it would mean a complete loss of license income. The 'ransom' model might get you over that hump.