From owner-freebsd-chat Mon Mar 17 5:17:31 2003 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8652B37B404 for ; Mon, 17 Mar 2003 05:17:30 -0800 (PST) Received: from picard.skynet.be (picard.skynet.be [195.238.3.88]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 138F743FA3 for ; Mon, 17 Mar 2003 05:17:29 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from brad.knowles@skynet.be) Received: from [10.0.1.2] (105.195-200-80.adsl.skynet.be [80.200.195.105]) by picard.skynet.be (8.12.8/8.12.8/Skynet-OUT-2.21) with ESMTP id h2HDGlEJ014100; Mon, 17 Mar 2003 14:16:48 +0100 (MET) (envelope-from ) Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: bs663385@pop.skynet.be Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <20030317123254.GA82269@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> References: <0HBT00H6WFNMOC@net.WAU.NL> <20030317123254.GA82269@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2003 14:14:59 +0100 To: Jonathon McKitrick From: Brad Knowles Subject: Re: When does it make sense for a company to open-source its code? Cc: Brad Knowles , FST777@phreaker.net, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org At 12:32 PM +0000 2003/03/17, Jonathon McKitrick wrote: > That certainly sounds like it makes sense. The only catch for our > application is it is market specific, and would have limited interest at > this point. You are correct. Making a mixed approach work requires a sufficiently large market that they can adequately take on the bulk of the support role, once the project goes into the maintenance phase. If you don't have a market that large, then you might have a problem. A smaller market could be made to work, if they are given a larger sense of control and investment, so that they could make the tool(s) more flexible and meet a broader range of needs. This way, they get more involved in the development aspects as well as maintenance. However, even if you've got a large enough market, if they're not already in a medium that lends itself to open source methods, it may take a while to "prime" the pump. -- Brad Knowles, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania. GCS/IT d+(-) s:+(++)>: a C++(+++)$ UMBSHI++++$ P+>++ L+ !E-(---) W+++(--) N+ !w--- O- M++ V PS++(+++) PE- Y+(++) PGP>+++ t+(+++) 5++(+++) X++(+++) R+(+++) tv+(+++) b+(++++) DI+(++++) D+(++) G+(++++) e++>++++ h--- r---(+++)* z(+++) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message