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Firebase is not really super complicated. It's just a database with a REST Api. I can not think of much more things they could add to lock you in more. I think

by ma2rten 15y ago

Firebase is not really super complicated. It's just a database with a REST Api. I can not think of much more things they could add to lock you in more. I think if this becomes a thing, someone will make an opensource clone sooner or later. About Meteor: There might be a lot of things wrong with Meteor (insecure by design), but this is not one of them: it's opensource and has a command which makes a self containing tar.gz bundle for you to deploy on your own server.

davidw 15y ago
> it's opensource Under a license that does not permit you to easily use it for commercial projects, unlike, say, Django, Rails, Node.js, etc... etc.... etc....
- ma2rten 15y ago
  That is not true. It's released under the GNU GPL, which does not make a difference between commercial and non-commercial projects afaik. It only says if you distribute the binary, you also need to give away the source code and others may redistribute and modify it. That does not mean, however, that you can not run it on your own server and keep the source code for yourself.
  - davidw 15y ago
    But it's all bundled up, so you're linking: you need to give your code away. That's my understanding at least. If it were purely server-side, you'd be correct, but it isn't from what I can tell. Also, the fact that they talk about commercial licenses is indicative that they may be thinking along similar lines.
  - zmmmmm 15y ago
    As davidw says, you are distributing the "binary", because you are sending it to people's browsers in the form of javascript. Under GPL you are not permitted to do that unless you also make available to them the full source of your application.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
mayop100 15y ago
Firebase is a lot more than a database with a REST API. It pushes changes to you live, as they happen, in a way that is fast enough that you can use it for real-time gaming, collaborative whiteboards, and other apps could never work with a polling architecture. It also does the work of managing distributed state of data across all of the clients and the server, and merging that data as needed to prevent conflicts in a distributed network like this. In fact, it allows you to run operations atomically across this distributed system -- operations that are latency-compensated, and work even in offline mode. And finally, it can scale, with no work from the developer.
- julochrobak 15y ago
  Yeah sure! Suddenly there is a solution to distributed always consistent real time fully scalable reliable easy to use inexpensive database :) Do you know this saying? "Nobody can give so much as I can promise you."

by ma2rten 15y ago

davidw 15y ago

> it's opensource Under a license that does not permit you to easily use it for commercial projects, unlike, say, Django, Rails, Node.js, etc... etc.... etc....

ma2rten 15y ago
That is not true. It's released under the GNU GPL, which does not make a difference between commercial and non-commercial projects afaik. It only says if you distribute the binary, you also need to give away the source code and others may redistribute and modify it. That does not mean, however, that you can not run it on your own server and keep the source code for yourself.
- davidw 15y ago
  But it's all bundled up, so you're linking: you need to give your code away. That's my understanding at least. If it were purely server-side, you'd be correct, but it isn't from what I can tell. Also, the fact that they talk about commercial licenses is indicative that they may be thinking along similar lines.
- zmmmmm 15y ago
  As davidw says, you are distributing the "binary", because you are sending it to people's browsers in the form of javascript. Under GPL you are not permitted to do that unless you also make available to them the full source of your application.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]

mayop100 15y ago

Firebase is a lot more than a database with a REST API. It pushes changes to you live, as they happen, in a way that is fast enough that you can use it for real-time gaming, collaborative whiteboards, and other apps could never work with a polling architecture. It also does the work of managing distributed state of data across all of the clients and the server, and merging that data as needed to prevent conflicts in a distributed network like this. In fact, it allows you to run operations atomically across this distributed system -- operations that are latency-compensated, and work even in offline mode. And finally, it can scale, with no work from the developer.

julochrobak 15y ago
Yeah sure! Suddenly there is a solution to distributed always consistent real time fully scalable reliable easy to use inexpensive database :) Do you know this saying? "Nobody can give so much as I can promise you."