From owner-freebsd-chat Sat Mar 15 14:58:49 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 A0C0737B401 for ; Sat, 15 Mar 2003 14:58:47 -0800 (PST) Received: from probity.mcc.ac.uk (probity.mcc.ac.uk [130.88.200.94]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 95FEE43FAF for ; Sat, 15 Mar 2003 14:58:46 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org) Received: from dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org ([130.88.200.97]) by probity.mcc.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 4.12) id 18uKc1-0007mu-00 for freebsd-chat@freebsd.org; Sat, 15 Mar 2003 22:58:45 +0000 Received: from dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org (8.12.6/8.11.1) with ESMTP id h2FMwiPe072419 for ; Sat, 15 Mar 2003 22:58:45 GMT (envelope-from jcm@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org) Received: (from jcm@localhost) by dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org (8.12.6/8.12.6/Submit) id h2FMwiPt072418 for freebsd-chat@freebsd.org; Sat, 15 Mar 2003 22:58:44 GMT Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2003 22:58:44 +0000 From: Jonathon McKitrick To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: When does it make sense for a company to open-source its code? Message-ID: <20030315225844.GA72313@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.4i X-Scanner: exiscan for exim4 (http://duncanthrax.net/exiscan/) *18uKc1-0007mu-00*LY/zeA6bRDw* 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 Hi all, I'm hoping I could get some input on a question. We have heard a lot of very good reasons why it makes sense to use open source projects in a commercial setting, and even hiring a developer to customize it for us. In this case the changes are often given back to the parent project, when practical and possible. However, here is a different situation, and I would like your thoughts. The company I work at designs scientific instruments controlled from a host PC. That PC has to run Windows right now. However, I am being asked to look into porting at least some of the software, possibly just the hardware control components, to Linux/Unix. One of our divisions that makes an entirely different type of hardware currently sells workstations with Linux-based software that is binary only. If I were to port any of our software to *nix, I would make sure FreeBSD would be supported, of course. Just by way of an overview, the software is basically composed of components that communicate to the instruments via serial/GPIB/USB/IP, 'engines' that tie the components into sequential steps to make experiments, and a UI to make it all easy to use. What might be some guidelines to follow to decide what should be made open source (BSD license) and what should be binary-only? Could we practically do both? If binary-only is becoming widely unacceptable, what else could be done to protect our intellectual property? NOTE: Please CC me, as I am not currently subscribed. Thanks. jm -- My other computer is your windows box. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message