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Making the Kinopio source code public
- humdrum 2y ago> By contrast, delivering software is more like delivering a gooey crying baby. It’s alive. Squirming, growing, and changing because the technologies it relies on do too. Physical materials rarely change, but web browsers, operating systems, and servers sure do. Love this
- pketh 2y agohaha thanks!
- martingxx 2y agoThe title says "open source", but the license says otherwise.
- dvdkon 2y agoSorry to be pedantic, but since the licence forbids commercial use, the software isn't open source, but rather just source-available.
- singpolyma3 2y agoHardly pendantic to point out the obvious truth. Headline is a lie
- Bjorkbat 2y agoTo be fair, I myself was ignorant of the difference between open-source and source-available. This whole time I thought releasing the source code under a license that restricts commercial use was just as open-source as releasing something with an MIT license. Good to know I suppose.
- opan 2y agoThe Four Freedoms of free software or the Open Source Definition may clear things up, for those who haven't read them. You can sell CDs with Emacs on them!
- kazinator 2y agoIt is just as open source. If the source is available, you can open it in an editor. There you go: open source. It's just not Open Source according to the OSI people who believe they own the term. They do not hold a trademark on the term. https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/8367/is-the-term-open-source-a-trademark https://opensource.stackexchange.com/questions/8367/is-the-t... The term "open" has been used as a weasel words in the industry before OSI and "open source". Off the top of my head: "The Open Group", "Open Software Foundation", "X/Open", "Open Look", "OpenStep", "OpenGL", "OpenMax", "OpenType", ... It's best to use more specific terms like "BSD licensed", "MIT licensed" or "Copyleft". Or FOSS. "FOSS" is a thing because open source isn't necessarily free due to the conflation with source-available.
- black_puppydog 2y agoNot having read the license, for me as a private person this is more than source available no?
- klysm 2y agoSure, but that is not the same as open source
- ilc 2y agoIt isn't pedantic. It is the truth. I personally won't touch non-commercial products. Mainly because I never know if what I am doing is commercial. If I'm doing open source work, but not getting paid, but there's a company involved. Think about improving the keyboard you are using's firmware... Now what happens if that company is grateful and sends you a prototype of the next board to help them out. You are now getting something. Is it commercial? Why the fuck do I want to think about this. I don't. So I just don't use this type of software, and I encourage others to think of commercial as broadly as possible, when considering using it. I use all types of licenses including straight up commercial. But I want to be clear: Their code, their right to license it. I respect that right. And that is why I won't use it.
- opan 2y agoI strongly agree with this. You just don't have to worry if it's actually free software. You can use vim and emacs at home or at work. You don't need to suddenly pay for a professional license or risk getting into trouble. It's just easier to stick to free (as in freedom) software for this reason. You can do what you want, where you want, no nonsense.
- ilc 2y agoIn general, but sometimes commercial software can make life better. I use the JetBrains IDEs, I have no issue paying for them, I can install them on as many machines as I need etc. If I make more FOSS, by using a non FOSS tool, it is worth it to me. I value clarity of licensing above all. The non-commercial, can't use it in military applications or can't use it to save puppies ware is the stuff I really hate. Do I prefer FOSS, yes, do I try to cut back over to emacs and neovim every so often, yeah. Do I stay where I am for now, so I can be more productive... Yeah.
- ensignavenger 2y agoI have tried to use JetBrains IDEs a few times because I hear they are great and more productive, but I find that I don't know them well enough to be more productive in them... so I think to myself "do I really want to invest the time to learn this tool if it could be made unavailable to me in the future". To be fair to JetBrains, once you buy a license, you always own the license to the last version while you had a subscription, so you are never really cut off from using the old version... however, I also prefer to be able to fork and continue to evolve my tools. So yeah, JetBrains has one of the best proprietary software release models I have ever seen. I just haven't ever been able to justify jumping in when I am already used to the open source alternatives. All the praise to Jetbrains though, they have a great model and they really support a lot of open source development too!
- pketh 2y agothanks for letting me know, I've changed the title of the post to "Making the Kinopio Source Code Available"
- whit537 2y agoYou might be interested in fair.io, launching next month. We ran into a similar problem a year ago that ended up stirring up a lot of drama, so we are now promoting the term Fair Source instead of Open Source. Fair Source: https://fair.io/ https://fair.io/ Our drama: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36971490 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36971490 Lots more context: https://openpath.chadwhitacre.com/2024/the-historical-case-for-fair-source/ https://openpath.chadwhitacre.com/2024/the-historical-case-f...
- dr_kiszonka 2y agoI wish you well but the name is unintuitive (Why fair? Is there an unfair source?) and the definition¹ is vague. 1. Fair Source is software that is safe for companies to share and developers to use. It's best for a company's core products, not shared infrastructure.
- thayne 2y agoI agree that we need a new term for licenses that are between traditional "source available" where the source code is published, but the license restricts any real usage, and fully open source. However, I don't like the name "fair source". It implies that open source is somehow unfair, which I don't think is fair. I see where the name comes from, since it is trying to be more "fair" to the creating company by preventing another company from building a product without putting any work or money into it. But compressing that nuance into the word "fair" is IMO potentially confusing.
- ensignavenger 2y agoCreating a new term to describe this licening model may be a good idea... but it appears that that the linked website has no definition for what the term is supposed to mean yet? Is that something you intend to remedy in the future as a definition is decided upon? I would also echo other commentators that the name may lead to a belief that you are implying that other software models aren't fair. If that is not your intent, then adding an explanation of it on the website may be a good idea, so that others will know why the name "fair" was chosen and how it is meant to be interpreted in relation to the other licensing models.
- abdullahkhalids 2y agoWe definitely need a term, more accurate than source-available, that describes software whose usage and improvements can only orbit in non-commercial space. For non-software creative works, we have Creative Commons NonCommercial licenses.
- whit537 2y agoYes! We aim to launch https://fair.io/ https://fair.io/ next month to promote the term Fair Source for this purpose. Early feedback is guardedly positive, e.g., ESR's take was "very clever." https://openpath.chadwhitacre.com/2024/the-historical-case-for-fair-source/#early-feedback-is-guardedly-positive https://openpath.chadwhitacre.com/2024/the-historical-case-f...
- brunoqc 2y agoWhy? We all know what "source available" mean and that it's not really open-source.
- card_zero 2y agoSomehow you've all established this phrase with the adjective after the noun. I guess it's stuck like that now. "This software is source-available" as in "this chicken is range-free".
- narism 2y agoAKA the postpositive adjective. I do wish they had gone with Available Source Software for the acronym possibilities.
- abdullahkhalids 2y agoBecause you can 1. Release the source only for the purpose of studying it. Say some scientific software library's source available so you can check the details of the algorithm. 2. Release the source, and allow you to make improvements to it, but not give any further distribution rights. 3. Release the source, and allow non-commercial users to improve the source and distribute those improvements to other non-commercial users. 4. Release under some dual license. 5. Release under certified Open Source licenses. I would say, most people would only label 1 or 2 as "source available". Over the past few years 3 and 4 are becoming more popular (for whatever reasons - good or bad). So 3 should have a name as well.
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- m463 2y agohere's a better explanation than I could put in a comment: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.en.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point....
- endisneigh 2y ago1. Not technically open source since you can’t use for commercial, but ignoring the pedantry. 2. You’re clearly worried about the commercial risk, why even do it? You have a section on this but even after reading - seems like a non answer.
- pketh 2y ago> The big benefit of open source for me is that it’s another way to share the work that goes into Kinopio.
- flobosg 2y agoI like how the author used Kinopio for his “Uses This” interview: https://usesthis.com/interviews/pirijan/ https://usesthis.com/interviews/pirijan/ And I instantly recognized that artwork from Hirō Isono: Seiken Densetsu 3! https://archive.org/details/seikendensetsu3sfchiresscans/Seiken%20Densetsu%20-%20Manual/ https://archive.org/details/seikendensetsu3sfchiresscans/Sei...
- rchaud 2y agoNice to see that the screenshots have full alt text transcriptions of the text in the image.
- VyseofArcadia 2y agoAlso, "Kinopio" is the Japanese name for the Mario character that the English-speaking world knows as Toad.
- 29athrowaway 2y agoAnother cool fact is that Bowser is the president of Nintendo of America. Doug Bowser.
- poetril 2y agoOh wow I had no idea he cofounded Glitch. Also very cool use of his product for the interview
- runjake 2y agoFor others who have no idea what Kinopio is: Kinopio is "a spatial thinking canvas for your new ideas and hard problems". https://kinopio.club/hello-kinopio-m6UmPzsVTQUcarM6ROPsu https://kinopio.club/hello-kinopio-m6UmPzsVTQUcarM6ROPsu It's not my kinda thing, but very neat!
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- brianzelip 2y agoHere's a great podcast episode with the Kinopio author that also touches on the design of Glitch.com and more, very informing! https://www.localfirst.fm/8 https://www.localfirst.fm/8
- caseyf 2y agoI love that Glitch and Kinopio look like they were designed by someone with their own personal style/way of doing UI. Contrast with nearly everything else on the web.
- anderber 2y agoI love Kinopio and I really appreciate being able to look around the code and perhaps even help make it better. Hopefully, this will spur innovations and new updates.
- pketh 2y agoI’m looking forward to it too
- whalesalad 2y agoI've been following this project for a while - very excited to see this and even more excited that it is Vue!
- pketh 2y agoI’m a big vue fan, it’s a great oss success story and feels good not to use any facebook tech
- dang 2y agoRelated: The Hybrid Architecture of Kinopio for iOS - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37404820 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37404820 - Sept 2023 (1 comment) Kinopio - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31460626 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31460626 - May 2022 (141 comments) Kinopio - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29726044 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29726044 - Dec 2021 (2 comments) Show HN: Kinopio.club – visual thinking, brainstorming tool - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24132631 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24132631 - Aug 2020 (64 comments)
- wcerfgba 2y agoI don't use Kinopio for everything, but when I need to arrange ideas in a 2D way and think about webs of relationships, it's been an amazing addition to my set of "tools for thought". Thank you for all of your work on it <3
- pketh 2y agoYou’re very welcome :)
- Vegenoid 2y agoI've never been interested in this canvas/corkboard kind of software, and I'd never heard of Kinopio, but it's so nice that I'm trying to come up with a reason to use it.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- jeswin 2y ago> On the eve of it’s 5th anniversary, I’ve decided to make the code for the kinopio-client app public. Can you clarify if the server is also open source? If not, a more accurate headline would be "Open Sourcing Kinopio Client"; which is a very different thing.
- spiffytech 2y agoI do not see a Github repo for the server code. The client isn't actually open source, either. It's under a source-available license (PolyForm Noncommercial License) which only permits changes and distribution for enumerated non-commercial purposes.
- opan 2y agoThanks. I always read headlines like this with skepticism and try to find the license used right away. They score easy feel-good points throwing around "open source" without going all the way.
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- square_usual 2y agoThe first image on the post says it's not.
- geenat 2y agoWhat's the deal with all the anons complaining about the non-commercial use clause? It's one guy. There'd almost certainly be paid clones popping up otherwise. Pirijan is being very cool opening up the main product in the first place- this isn't just a supporting library or sidecar.
- thayne 2y agoBecause they are claiming that it is open source, when it isn't. It's great that they are making the source available, but the non-commercial restriction means it isn't open source, so don't claim that it is.
- emptysongglass 2y agoHe changed the title. The drama is over.
- ensignavenger 2y agoThe title on Hacker News hasn't been updated yet, so that title is still misleading. I think dang would need to edit the submission to reflect the new, correct post title. Otherwise we can still expect new comments on the fact that it isn't open source at all.
- josephcsible 2y ago> What's the deal with all the anons complaining about the non-commercial use clause? It's one guy. It's the same reason that people would complain if a mom-and-pop restaurant advertised that its meals were vegan, but they actually contained butter.