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As far as I can tell it is AGPL licensed PHP code, you can download the code, run it, and modify/fork it freely. Code is open source, but it is not developed in

As far as I can tell it is AGPL licensed PHP code, you can download the code, run it, and modify/fork it freely. Code is open source, but it is not developed in the open.

yakubin 6y ago
The article doesn't mention GPL. It's unlikely that this code is GPL-licensed. Moreover, yeah, probably the customer can modify the code, but can they resell it or share it with someone else for free? If not, it's not open source. From "The Open Source Definition"[1]: > The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale. [1]: <https://opensource.org/osd https://opensource.org/osd> UPDATE: it seems it is licensed under AGPLv3. So it is open source. Interesting.
- monsieurbanana 6y ago
  I'm sure I've spend less time downloading the zip, opening it, and seeing a "agpl.txt" file than you did writting that comment.
  - yakubin 6y ago
    I don't see a link to it in the article. I've only noticed where it is after another commenter linked to it.
- nvr219 6y ago
  It says open source in the title. Turns out it is open source. "Interesting" Like... why did you expect it to not be open source
  - prepend 6y ago
    “I’m contradicting the author without validating my claim. And it’s super easy to validate my claim, but I just didn’t. When confronted, I complain that it takes greater than 10 seconds to verify my claim.” This is curious behavior. There’s lots of incorrect and misleading articles. But I try to bring up questions only when exhausting reasonable investigations.
    - yakubin 6y ago
      1. There is no link in the article to the zip file. 2. Searching for open3A in duckduckgo brings me to a page that spits out PHP errors and doesn't give me anything. 3. The only way that I now know where the zip file is, is because another commenter linked to it. 4. We've seen companies disguise something as open-source, when it wasn't. 5. Open source is commonly hard-to-sell. So no, it wasn't 10 seconds to verify and the author didn't make it particularly easy to do so. My doubts are completely natural, given past news in "open-source". Are you commenting in bad faith?
      - touggourt 6y ago
        Basicaly you are just explaining that you've just done a very quick search. Fact that Duckduckgo doesn't gives the right answer an the first page is not an excuse. Actually, DDG printed a lots of comparison pages of business application for me, so I changed my search string, tried elsewhere, searched on indiehackers.com where she writed the post. This is more completely natural that becoming suspicious from nothing. BTW typing only "open3A" in DDG gaves me the right answers all on the first page.
      - II2II 6y ago
        There is a trail of links from the article that will bring you to the download. Click on the author's name to see their profile, click on the project to see the project's profile, click on the link to the project website, then click on the link to the downloads page. While the trail is a bit much, it is important to keep in mind the article was an account of the author's experiences and it published on a portal for indie developers. A direct link may not have been seen as appropriate given the context. While I agree with companies misrepresenting their products as open source as being a problem and believe the AGPL should have been mentioned, I do not see how the point about open source being hard to sell as being relevant. Not only are there are success stories in the world of open source, but the author made their success sound modest.

As far as I can tell it is AGPL licensed PHP code, you can download the code, run it, and modify/fork it freely. Code is open source, but it is not developed in the open.

yakubin 6y ago

The article doesn't mention GPL. It's unlikely that this code is GPL-licensed. Moreover, yeah, probably the customer can modify the code, but can they resell it or share it with someone else for free? If not, it's not open source. From "The Open Source Definition"[1]: > The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale. [1]: <https://opensource.org/osd https://opensource.org/osd> UPDATE: it seems it is licensed under AGPLv3. So it is open source. Interesting.

monsieurbanana 6y ago
I'm sure I've spend less time downloading the zip, opening it, and seeing a "agpl.txt" file than you did writting that comment.
- yakubin 6y ago
  I don't see a link to it in the article. I've only noticed where it is after another commenter linked to it.
nvr219 6y ago
It says open source in the title. Turns out it is open source. "Interesting" Like... why did you expect it to not be open source
- prepend 6y ago
  “I’m contradicting the author without validating my claim. And it’s super easy to validate my claim, but I just didn’t. When confronted, I complain that it takes greater than 10 seconds to verify my claim.” This is curious behavior. There’s lots of incorrect and misleading articles. But I try to bring up questions only when exhausting reasonable investigations.
  - yakubin 6y ago
    1. There is no link in the article to the zip file. 2. Searching for open3A in duckduckgo brings me to a page that spits out PHP errors and doesn't give me anything. 3. The only way that I now know where the zip file is, is because another commenter linked to it. 4. We've seen companies disguise something as open-source, when it wasn't. 5. Open source is commonly hard-to-sell. So no, it wasn't 10 seconds to verify and the author didn't make it particularly easy to do so. My doubts are completely natural, given past news in "open-source". Are you commenting in bad faith?
    - touggourt 6y ago
      Basicaly you are just explaining that you've just done a very quick search. Fact that Duckduckgo doesn't gives the right answer an the first page is not an excuse. Actually, DDG printed a lots of comparison pages of business application for me, so I changed my search string, tried elsewhere, searched on indiehackers.com where she writed the post. This is more completely natural that becoming suspicious from nothing. BTW typing only "open3A" in DDG gaves me the right answers all on the first page.
    - II2II 6y ago
      There is a trail of links from the article that will bring you to the download. Click on the author's name to see their profile, click on the project to see the project's profile, click on the link to the project website, then click on the link to the downloads page. While the trail is a bit much, it is important to keep in mind the article was an account of the author's experiences and it published on a portal for indie developers. A direct link may not have been seen as appropriate given the context. While I agree with companies misrepresenting their products as open source as being a problem and believe the AGPL should have been mentioned, I do not see how the point about open source being hard to sell as being relevant. Not only are there are success stories in the world of open source, but the author made their success sound modest.