I believe that the world is moving towards loss leader entry level products
to _have_ to be Open Source for developers to consider them in the first
place. You basically want to see if the product can solve your problem
before you want to pay. This usually requires running in production too.
Then when they have married your product and have kids, you sell them
consultancy to make it work exactly the way they want.
If you don't do it this way, the developers will choose another product that
does.
In my experience, Open Source is crucial to figure out workarounds at 3 AM.
So, yes, the software has value. The value is just placed elsewhere than at
the software download location and this is driven by the distribution cost
of software being zero.
If all this is unfamiliar to you, I would recommend reading "The Magic
Cauldron" by Eric Raymond
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/magic-cauldron/
/Thorbjørn
-----Original Message-----
From: web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Nathan Andelin
Sent: 16. september 2010 06:51
To: Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: [WEB400] IBM i GUI Frameworks
I don't know if this is a reflection of the software industry in general, or
a
reflection of the frameworks under consideration here, but it's questionable
when one's primary message for gaining traction in the market is that one's
product is free and offered under the most liberal license, anywhere. It
doesn't have any value? You're a bona fide philanthropist? There's a hidden
agenda?
-Nathan.
----- Original Message ----
From: Aaron Bartell <aaronbartell@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Web Enabling the AS400 / iSeries <web400@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: kevin.turner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wed, September 15, 2010 12:21:42 PM
Subject: Re: [WEB400] IBM i GUI Frameworks
FYI, we just release a new site for RPGUI that is going to be announced this
week. It is now named OpenRPGUI and can be found at www.OpenRPGUI.com
Here are some fundamental differences:
1) powerEXT and Renaissance both make use of CGIDEV2 which has license
issues. Not saying they aren't excellently developed, because they are from
what I have seen.
2) powerEXT is GPLv3 and requires a license more or less (unless you open
source your application which is highly unlikely - Henrik, let me know if I
am incorrect). This means I can't use powerEXT source in OpenRPGUI.
OpenRPGUI is LGPL which is much more liberal (i.e. better for developers)
and doesn't require you to submit your changes back to the core product or
open source your application.
3) OpenRPGUI makes more use of a "display file talks to controller"
approach. You can see what I mean by going here:
http://red.rpg-xml.com/oru11/dspf/custmaint.html. I am not sure whether
powerEXT or Ren takes this approach, but I am finding it saves me A LOT of
coding time.
I am not for certain what license Ren is distributed under. Maybe Kevin
Turner can respond on that note. If it is under a liberal license there we
could make use of it in OpenRPGUI. I am not against doing co-development,
but I doubt we could fold any of these together into one.
Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com
http://mowyourlawn.com/blog/
midrange.com
