4 ms·

So how does it make them money?

by hvis 6y ago

johannes1234321 6y ago
By integrating well with Azure and by making their brand attractive to developers.
- hvis 6y ago
  You don't need proprietary plugins for that, though. To make the brand attractive, free/open source is best.
  - johannes1234321 6y ago
    The "bad" reason why they are closed: They have the open core, but with key parts closed it's boarder for others to build a solution on top of it, thus they can shovel more integrations with their services in. The "good" reason: Because relicensing of old software is hard and while they want to make it available (to strengthen their position in the developer community) See also my comment in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24048633 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24048633
  - ClikeX 6y ago
    Hasn't Microsoft been a pretty attractive brand for years on end while being proprietary? You make a brand attractive by offering a good product, good support/service, and then marketing those points. I try to use as much OSS as I can. But free/opensource isn't the most attractive feature to everyone. And I'd say the success of so many proprietary companies is proof of that.
Jnr 6y ago
I saw somewhere that they will offer the remote development in the browser as a paid cloud feature. They can also at any time make those proprietary features non-free. Perhaps when they get a large enough user base or new CEO or something like that.
- hvis 6y ago
  You know... even for a feature like that, the plugin itself can be open source. After all, if the remote development feature is based on a centralized server (owned by MS), the license check will be performed on that server. And if no centralized server is in play, suffice it to say, anybody sufficiently motivated could reverse-engineer the plugin, remove the license check, and go on using the feature for free.
coldtea 6y ago
For one, by not allowing someone to just take their code and use it in another editor to offer the same "remote development" etc features using their (MS's) work. So they control the value from those closed features to only be used to enhance the VSCode and VS brand.

So how does it make them money?

by hvis 6y ago

So how does it make them money?

johannes1234321 6y ago

By integrating well with Azure and by making their brand attractive to developers.

hvis 6y ago
You don't need proprietary plugins for that, though. To make the brand attractive, free/open source is best.
- johannes1234321 6y ago
  The "bad" reason why they are closed: They have the open core, but with key parts closed it's boarder for others to build a solution on top of it, thus they can shovel more integrations with their services in. The "good" reason: Because relicensing of old software is hard and while they want to make it available (to strengthen their position in the developer community) See also my comment in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24048633 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24048633
- ClikeX 6y ago
  Hasn't Microsoft been a pretty attractive brand for years on end while being proprietary? You make a brand attractive by offering a good product, good support/service, and then marketing those points. I try to use as much OSS as I can. But free/opensource isn't the most attractive feature to everyone. And I'd say the success of so many proprietary companies is proof of that.

Jnr 6y ago

I saw somewhere that they will offer the remote development in the browser as a paid cloud feature. They can also at any time make those proprietary features non-free. Perhaps when they get a large enough user base or new CEO or something like that.

hvis 6y ago
You know... even for a feature like that, the plugin itself can be open source. After all, if the remote development feature is based on a centralized server (owned by MS), the license check will be performed on that server. And if no centralized server is in play, suffice it to say, anybody sufficiently motivated could reverse-engineer the plugin, remove the license check, and go on using the feature for free.

coldtea 6y ago

For one, by not allowing someone to just take their code and use it in another editor to offer the same "remote development" etc features using their (MS's) work. So they control the value from those closed features to only be used to enhance the VSCode and VS brand.