My feelings on this matter are fairly straightforward: so long as the "community version" truly *is* FOSS, then, if people like it enough/care enough, they can either add on options (if the vendor works with the community) or develop in parallel (if they decide a fork would be better).
When I start getting annoyed is when the company purports to work with the community, but doesn't, really. OpenOffice.org comes leaping to mind -- Sun accepts and includes patches about as often as RMS does with Emacs. [Hmmm. I wasn't trying to make that comparison, but it bears some thinking about. IIRC, it was even this reason that was the primary motivation for the XEmacs fork.] Perhaps my concern is also tied into Ye Olde Cathedral vs. Bazaar paradigms. ESR does a decent job of getting under my skin, but when he's right, he's right. $.02, YMMV, etc. -Ken On Thu, August 20, 2009 5:00 pm, Stanley Brinkerhoff wrote: > How do people feel about community editions and crippled FOSS releases in > general? I understand you need to make $$, but the whole community > edition gig has bothered me. Its almost like tricking me into thinking it > wholesome and good FOSS, but then BAM, its commercial software. MySQL is > the closest edge case I can think of that I am ok with. The core is 100% > functional, and t hey dont throw in my face HEY LOOK AT THESE AWESOME > ENTERPRISE ADDONS. > > > I am not anti-commercial software in anyway (well, there is some REALLY > bad software people charge for), its my choice to buy it or not.. but it > always stings when I get excited about something only to find its limited > in such a way that the community needs to redevelop what the parent > already offers. > > Stan > > > > > > On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 4:43 PM, Rubin Bennett > <[email protected]>wrote: > > >> It does a crappy job however at complicated networks, and the dual WAN >> is a non-open source, fee-per add-on. >> >> Untangle in general does utterly rock though - we just always use it as >> a bridge. >> >> Rubin Bennett >> rbTechnologies, LLC 80 Carleton Boulevard >> East Montpelier, VT 05651 >> >> >> (802)223-4448 >> >> > > -- > This message has been scanned for viruses and > dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. > > -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.
