I'm going to be stepping back from this discussion. I believe my statement stands as it is. The last thing I will say is that you're wrong about the FOSS alternatives as direct competitors. AS I mentioned in my original posting I recently worked on 3 separate sites that started off using open source alternatives as the CFML engine. In each case after a year the owners wanted to expand the services and use features that were not available. While I could have spent quite a few hours working on a fix, it was faster and cheaper for the clients to step up to Adobe CF. The result was 3 sales that Adobe never would have had otherwise.
The point being FOSS complements and expands the market for CFML, and by extension Adobe. If anything Adobe should be promoting the FOSS engines as a low cost entry point. That is something it has been criticized about for years. Once the customer realizes how much more is available with the Adobe engine they will make that sale. Its a model that's been followed in quite a few successful operations, such as Zend with PHP and RedHat with Linux and JBoss. In both these cases having an open source entry point has not hurt their bottom line. >Well I think perspective makes a difference. Hopefully you can understand >that I'm exposed to much more of the community than those on this list might >be - especially the anti-Adobe sentiment. 3 years ago when I blogged about >OpenBD, I was right to be skeptic given the history of New Atlanta. Back >then I feared that this would cause a divide in our already small community, >which it unfortunately has (whether you choose to believe it or not). > >If you need any evidence of the anti-CF comments, feel free to browse my >blog comments. Some are quick to forget all that CF has done in the past and >continues to do to support this community. I think some also forget that the >ColdFusion team is made up of human beings with real feelings. We pour our >hearts and energy into this product and community. Then along comes a few >people who decide to build a near identical clone of ColdFusion. After >several failed years of trying to compete with CF commercially, they give >the product away through open source and market directly to ColdFusion >customers. Suddenly they are heros and can do no wrong. How do you think >this makes the _people_ behind CF feel? So yes, I am commonly guilty of >letting my emotions get the better of me and I fight back when I should take >the high road and ignore our critics. I'm human... and I'm proud of the work >my team does. Whether the threat is PHP or Railo, I'm going to defend my >product and my team. > >Which ever way you slice it, OpenBD/Railo are the direct competitors of >ColdFusion. I know some wish that wasn't the case, but it that is the >reality of the world we live in. > >The point of my message was to express unity with Russ's comments. However, >Russ has a tendency to throw in jabs about Adobe's view on the open source >competitors. > >As far as OpenCFML goes. It failed from a lack of contribution from Railo >and OpenBD. The only thing I'm guilty of was being honest with community. > >-Adam > >On Jan 21, 2011 2:30 AM, "Larry Lyons" <[email protected]> wrote: > >Excuse me who has been very hostile to the open source community, for >instance your recent comment on CFEclipse is a very good example. Or your >comments about Open BlueDragon when it first started for another. > >And you cannot say its a defensive matter on your part. So when you start >that sort of crap its hypocrisy on your part. If anything the Open Source >community in CF is trying to grow the CF community. The only hostility I've >really seen has been on YOUR part. > >The fact is that the availability of alternative open source engines >deflates the often used argument against CF about it costing too much. >Moreover the open source CF engines serve to get more into coldfusion. For >instance 3 sites I've developed started off using Open BlueDragon. Later >each one of those moved up to CF Standard. That is something that would not >have happened without the open source CF engine. With your attitude towards >the open source community, its serving to hurt further expansion of the CF >community. That is detrimental to Adobe's bottom line in the long run. > > > >>Russ, >> >>You're preaching to the choir... well except for that last part which is >>ridiculous. Th... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:341087 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
