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> Is there any examples out there of companies that have actually made money taking this approach? There are many, whether it fits depends a lot on the product

by Mahn 12y ago

> Is there any examples out there of companies that have actually made money taking this approach? There are many, whether it fits depends a lot on the product but this open source first, business second approach is definitely not new. See for example MongoDB, WordPress, Vanilla Forums or Discourse. Or here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commercial_open-source_applications_and_services http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commercial_open-source_... And see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSaaS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSaaS

hoodoof 12y ago
+1 for the Wikipedia link. Mongodb uses the Affero GPL license which is distasteful to many and my concern is using Affero would not REALLY be going open source but would be a way of trying to protect my business/my source code from being hijacked and renamed. Thoughts?
- sarciszewski 12y ago
  From my understanding, AGPL doesn't stop people from "hijacking and renaming" your code. It stipulates that, if someone were to do so, they need to make the source code available to anyone who accesses the application (even over a web browser).
- palmer_eldritch 12y ago
  How is using AGPL not really open source? Or do you mean it in the "open source" vs "free software" sense? Even then I don't see how it doesn't fit in the OSI definition... The AGPL is an open source license: you give people access to your source code and they're free to modify it and redistribute it as long as the code stays under the same license. The main (only?) difference with GPL is that providing a service based on AGPL code is considered the same as redistributing the software so you can't make proprietary changes to the code and say "but I'm not redistributing the code, I'm only running it on my own hardware so I don't have to make the source code available" as you can with GPL code. I believe the OSL3 allows protection from that too btw. Businesses are still free to take your code and provide a service based on it, they just have to contribute back if they make changes which seems only natural. Just like the GPL, it's there to ensure that the code stays free. It's only plugging a loophole which makes the GPL less relevant in the age of services.
deleted 12y ago
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by Mahn 12y ago

hoodoof 12y ago

+1 for the Wikipedia link. Mongodb uses the Affero GPL license which is distasteful to many and my concern is using Affero would not REALLY be going open source but would be a way of trying to protect my business/my source code from being hijacked and renamed. Thoughts?

sarciszewski 12y ago
From my understanding, AGPL doesn't stop people from "hijacking and renaming" your code. It stipulates that, if someone were to do so, they need to make the source code available to anyone who accesses the application (even over a web browser).
palmer_eldritch 12y ago
How is using AGPL not really open source? Or do you mean it in the "open source" vs "free software" sense? Even then I don't see how it doesn't fit in the OSI definition... The AGPL is an open source license: you give people access to your source code and they're free to modify it and redistribute it as long as the code stays under the same license. The main (only?) difference with GPL is that providing a service based on AGPL code is considered the same as redistributing the software so you can't make proprietary changes to the code and say "but I'm not redistributing the code, I'm only running it on my own hardware so I don't have to make the source code available" as you can with GPL code. I believe the OSL3 allows protection from that too btw. Businesses are still free to take your code and provide a service based on it, they just have to contribute back if they make changes which seems only natural. Just like the GPL, it's there to ensure that the code stays free. It's only plugging a loophole which makes the GPL less relevant in the age of services.

deleted 12y ago

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