> -----Original Message----- > From: Robert Munn [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2005 3:15 PM > To: CF-Talk > Subject: Re: John Dowdell Wants to Know What's Wrong with Macromedia > > But that's what I think is a mistake. I for one am super-glad that you are > able to contribute your time to this list, your blog, Mach-II, and all of > the other things you do for the community. What I am suggesting is that MM > should make a strategic decision to embrace open source in certain > categories, like IBM has done by embracing Eclipse, for instance.
I'm not sure if that's a valid comparison. IBM (and Microsoft and many others) have vast revenue streams from multiple sources that can support such initiatives easily, even at a flat loss, for years. (Even then IBM totally screwed up Eclipse as anybody that's been forced to use WSAD can attest to.) I don't believe that MM has those kinds of resources (yet). MM's only real revenue source is from software sales and licensing. Their most popular product (the Flash Player) is provided free so their other development efforts already have to carry that (and several other free products). I agree that they could embrace an open-source project as the base for a commercial project but then many of the open source licenses make that difficult (for example the GPL has a viral clause that insists any product based on GPL'd material must itself be GPL'd and thus effectively free). There are other concerns depending on the license (for example some licenses dictate that contributors have certain legal requirements in relation to other contributors or to the root project). I'm not saying that it can't work (throw me squarely in the group that would LOVE to see CF open-sourced). What I'm saying is that it's a much harder (and potentially more dangerous) decision for smaller companies than large companies with multiple revenue streams. I think that there are definite ways that MM could make it work, but they won't be able to make it work like IBM has. For example we just had to upgrade all of work machines to a Gig of RAM to use WSAD. So IBM's open-source IDE was directly responsible for the sale of several thousand dollars of IBM hardware. ;^) Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Discover CFTicket - The leading ColdFusion Help Desk and Trouble Ticket application http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=48 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:189759 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
