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"Of course, I hope the hue and cry about this will suggest to google that Sparrow might be worth maintaining after all." Or open source the app code? c.f Intel

"Of course, I hope the hue and cry about this will suggest to google that Sparrow might be worth maintaining after all." Or open source the app code? c.f Intellicad when Microsoft bought Visio

jiggy2011 14y ago
I've never used Sparrow, but how difficult would it be from a technical standpoint just to produce a copycat application?
- rahoulb 14y ago
  Technically not difficult. But Sparrow does nothing that any other email client out there does - the great thing about it is its "feel".
  - jiggy2011 14y ago
    Would the "feel" be difficult to reproduce? Maybe someone in a country unhindered by the DMCA could reverse engineering it and find whatever the secret sauce was.
    - wpietri 14y ago
      The DMCA isn't a problem; feel is hard to copyright. And if Google now owns the IP, they don't give two shits about suing somebody making a copycat app of something they abandoned. The problem is that good UI takes an absurd amount of work. It's the difference between painting a wall and painting a mural. With Sparrow to copy you'd have a good start, but you have to be enough of a UI devotee to even notice what makes a UI strong, and you'll still have to do a lot of user testing and polish.
    - rmc 14y ago
      DMCA is not a problem. The code ie copyrighted. You cannot copy it without permission (which you don't have). You cannot legally "take it apart to look at the code" to build a derived work without permission (which you don't have). A country without the DMCA still has copyright law.
reddit_clone 14y ago
Exactly what I thought. If they are interested only in the talent, why not give the code to the community? The publicity and goodwill alone should be worth it!
- learc83 14y ago
  >If they are interested only in the talent, why not give the code to the community? Because they have a directly competing product. I'm sure that getting rid of a competitor factored into the acquisition.

"Of course, I hope the hue and cry about this will suggest to google that Sparrow might be worth maintaining after all." Or open source the app code? c.f Intellicad when Microsoft bought Visio

jiggy2011 14y ago

I've never used Sparrow, but how difficult would it be from a technical standpoint just to produce a copycat application?

rahoulb 14y ago
Technically not difficult. But Sparrow does nothing that any other email client out there does - the great thing about it is its "feel".
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  Would the "feel" be difficult to reproduce? Maybe someone in a country unhindered by the DMCA could reverse engineering it and find whatever the secret sauce was.
  - wpietri 14y ago
    The DMCA isn't a problem; feel is hard to copyright. And if Google now owns the IP, they don't give two shits about suing somebody making a copycat app of something they abandoned. The problem is that good UI takes an absurd amount of work. It's the difference between painting a wall and painting a mural. With Sparrow to copy you'd have a good start, but you have to be enough of a UI devotee to even notice what makes a UI strong, and you'll still have to do a lot of user testing and polish.
  - rmc 14y ago
    DMCA is not a problem. The code ie copyrighted. You cannot copy it without permission (which you don't have). You cannot legally "take it apart to look at the code" to build a derived work without permission (which you don't have). A country without the DMCA still has copyright law.

reddit_clone 14y ago

Exactly what I thought. If they are interested only in the talent, why not give the code to the community? The publicity and goodwill alone should be worth it!

learc83 14y ago
>If they are interested only in the talent, why not give the code to the community? Because they have a directly competing product. I'm sure that getting rid of a competitor factored into the acquisition.