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2) I have two people that have been programming with me for about six years now. We created a tool for building business applications on the web. In some ways i

2) I have two people that have been programming with me for about six years now. We created a tool for building business applications on the web. In some ways its very much like Microsoft Access for the web. Its crazy good now, we're on something like version 10. We use it for most of our clients as a supplement to MS Access. Unfortunately, at this time, it only works with PostgreSQL and every time we show it to PostgreSQL people they love it but want it to be open source. Obviously, we had hoped to sell it so that's a big disappointment. We have an address book and a calendar. We're mulling over writing a webmail client and offering it as a "small business server" since Microsoft seems to have stepped away from that. I'd rather not do the work unless there is demand. How do I test that? -- So we have no shortage of choices. We could do a hundred different things at this point. The tool we built is phenomenal and would allow us to build any number of things quickly but out of all our choices we don't know what is likely to be profitable as a product. All we know for sure is we don't want to consult anymore because its a dead end. I'd like to productize what I do but I don't see how. The aerospace and medical companies I deal with don't do cloud and seem unlikely to pay me for maintaining a server in their building. Making a profit on servers is a dead end since they are hard to sell. How do these Micro$oft guys come in and bill $25k every three years like clockwork?

latj 11y ago
>Unfortunately, at this time, it only works with PostgreSQL and every time we show it to PostgreSQL people they love it but want it to be open source. Obviously, we had hoped to sell it so that's a big disappointment. Just because you make the software open source doesnt mean you cant sell it. At its rawest form open source just means that you are going to share the source code. If a business is big enough that they have staff who can integrate your open source project would they have been a customer of yours anyway? And if they arent going to be a customer, why not have them as a tester and potential contributor? And if they are a serious company, they usually want a service contract for crucial pieces of software. You could even have a license that allows using and modifying your software but limits redistribution (i.e. selling) although I wouldnt recommend it.
- butthurts 11y ago
  No big company ever started out by open sourcing their core product. It pretty much dooms the whole enterprise. There's been over a dozen companies that tried to sell support for Postgres, they all went out of business. Then you have Intuit(quickbooks), AutoCAD, Adobe, Salesforce, etc... All companies with software that is not easy to use. From impossible to expensive to customize. All huge companies. No open source there. This isn't to say I don't understand your argument, I do. But you haven't seen the product. It kicks Salesforce's ass. Developers that see it want it. I've had people tell me after a presentation that everyone is going to copy us once they see it. Javascript frameworks are going to go out of style tomorrow, etc... We have a big advantage and we aren't going to open source it. At this point we'd rather keep it in house and write a stupid dating site.

latj 11y ago

>Unfortunately, at this time, it only works with PostgreSQL and every time we show it to PostgreSQL people they love it but want it to be open source. Obviously, we had hoped to sell it so that's a big disappointment. Just because you make the software open source doesnt mean you cant sell it. At its rawest form open source just means that you are going to share the source code. If a business is big enough that they have staff who can integrate your open source project would they have been a customer of yours anyway? And if they arent going to be a customer, why not have them as a tester and potential contributor? And if they are a serious company, they usually want a service contract for crucial pieces of software. You could even have a license that allows using and modifying your software but limits redistribution (i.e. selling) although I wouldnt recommend it.

butthurts 11y ago
No big company ever started out by open sourcing their core product. It pretty much dooms the whole enterprise. There's been over a dozen companies that tried to sell support for Postgres, they all went out of business. Then you have Intuit(quickbooks), AutoCAD, Adobe, Salesforce, etc... All companies with software that is not easy to use. From impossible to expensive to customize. All huge companies. No open source there. This isn't to say I don't understand your argument, I do. But you haven't seen the product. It kicks Salesforce's ass. Developers that see it want it. I've had people tell me after a presentation that everyone is going to copy us once they see it. Javascript frameworks are going to go out of style tomorrow, etc... We have a big advantage and we aren't going to open source it. At this point we'd rather keep it in house and write a stupid dating site.