Re: Showcase for open & free software (Was: Busy day for announcements)

[Richard Schoen <richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have to say I agree with Brad. 

Many of the open-source products like MariaDB, Postgres, etc are being profited on by the service providers like Amazon who grab the code and turn them into recurring rev services.  

Even in the case of open-source things I've done I see very little feedback or appreciation for the work.  People just take, use and very seldom offer feedback or input.

I'm not expecting kudos or feedback, but we all have to eat, which is why some of us vendors and consultants walk the line between open source and closed source offerings. 

Family has to eat .

Regards,
Richard Schoen
Web: http://www.richardschoen.net
Email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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message: 3
date: Fri, 11 Jul 2025 10:19:31 -0500
from: Brad Stone <bvstone@xxxxxxxxx>
subject: Re: Showcase for open & free software (Was: Busy day for
	announcements)

"Successful" open source is few and far between.  Has been for many years.
Everyone wants something for free these days.  That's all the open source movement is to most.  Free stuff.

But those who put their heart and soul into open source and contribute I applaud.

On Thu, Jul 10, 2025 at 4:37?PM Infodorado InfoDorado via MIDRANGE-L < midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> To me, the way one company alone decides what happens with a hardware 
> or software product, as demonstrated in this discussion. Tech 
> companies try to lock the customer handcuffed to whatever the maestro 
> has. From what I saw from a distance, Oracle is an extreme example of 
> lock-in: it looks like their software is made to resist out-migration.
>
> Long story short, in my opinion, if the world as we know it lasts that 
> long, copyright law and patent law is eventually going to go the way 
> of the dodo bird. Might happen slow for awhile, then all at once.
>
> Open and free software at least is already on the way. It's gotten 
> stalled, because momentum, and because of my point. It becomes 
> complicated and even costly for a business to migrate systems.
>
> IBM i shops already are adopting open source. Apache, multi-layer 
> communications protocol, Linux here, Linux there.
>
> Even patents. A Kaypro customer at one company that made parts for 
> copiers early in the PC era told me that every time they innovated 
> some new thing, that a Japanese company would change some little thing 
> and they would get a brand new patent. A CFO at one company I worked 
> at in Cuba, said a mechanic for the farm collective he worked for 
> asked him to pick up a Ford (1954 I
> think) truck manual, on his trip to Havana, that the mechanic said he 
> needed to fix a Soviet-made truck, because it's exactly the same truck.
> Patents sham-ments.