Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2003 01:21:05 +0100 (CET) From: "Frans-Jan v. Steenbeek" <FST777@phreaker.net> To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Cc: jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org Subject: Re: When does it make sense for a company to open-source its code? Message-ID: <0HBT00H6WFNMOC@net.WAU.NL>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
one thing is that a huge part of the testing / bug-reporting, porting and enhancing can be done for free. Another thing is that people get to know the name of the company easier. Just to name a few. Expecially if the involved company makes its internal-used software Open Source and some expensive "sale-ware" binary. All the advantages will point to the fact that behind every Open Source software-project a huge supporting community stands. That is always a nice idea for a company. On Sat, 15 Mar 2003, Jonathon McKitrick wrote: > Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2003 22:58:44 +0000 > To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org > From: Jonathon McKitrick <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org> > Subject: When does it make sense for a company to open-source its code? > > > 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 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?0HBT00H6WFNMOC>