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As someone who writes open-source, I'm always happy to see other developers use my code to build cool stuff, and I expect nothing in return. I'm also happy to
by erezsh 6y ago
As someone who writes open-source, I'm always happy to see other developers use my code to build cool stuff, and I expect nothing in return.
I'm also happy to see small start-ups rise faster by using my software.
But if those theoretical start-ups, whose business wouldn't exist without my software, grew to dozens of employees, made millions of dollars, and still I wouldn't see a nickel.. That's when I would start to wonder, why am I doing this for free?
Incidentally, the bigger the company, the less likely it is to contribute back.
To conclude, that sounds like false equivalency to me. It does matter who is using it for free and profiting.
- ignoramous 6y agoI write F/OSS full-time. AWS does / did contribute patches to Elasticsearch. The problem Elasticsearch has is, AWS shares none of the gigantic profits it makes from its Elasticsearch Service, which is a double whammy because it cannibalizes Elastic's own SaaS offering. > To conclude, that sounds like false equivalency to me. It does matter who is using it for free and profiting. You mean to say, Facebook must share a % of its WhatsApp profits with ejabberd, or ejabberd otherwise is right to SSPL their software? Or, Google pay Oracle a share of the spoils because it is an "app container layer" on top of Java/JVM? And that Oracle is okay to switch to SSPL otherwise in search of those dollars? Or, okay if CnFdn SSPLs k8s? Also, if it matters whoever profits contributes back monetarily, may be the right way to do so would be via a Foundation. Using the Commons Clause or SSPL is not the answer, in my eyes. See also: http://dtrace.org/blogs/bmc/2018/12/14/open-source-confronts-its-midlife-crisis/ http://dtrace.org/blogs/bmc/2018/12/14/open-source-confronts...
- erezsh 6y ago> AWS does / did contribute patches to Elasticsearch. That's a meaningless statement, since it could just as well mean that they contributed back 2 hours of work. > * is okay to switch to SSPL ??? Yes, absolutely. Why not? The article you linked doesn't mention anything about foundations. But let's agree not every open-source project can become one.