VA Linux to Sell Proprietary Version of Sourceforge

Cassivs writes: "There's an article claiming that VA Linux is planning on selling a proprietary, closed-source version of SourceForge, SourceForge Enterprise Edition. See the letter to SourceForge members assuring them that VA Linux will continue to provide free hosting/etc. at SourceForge. They will also continue to maintain a GPL version of the code, SourceForge Open Edition." VA is Slashdot's corporate parent.

Comments

not really news...

[UM_Maverick]

This really isn't a big deal. Linux/dot-com company sells new product. Where's the story? The only reason this got posted is because hundreds of readers would have moaned and griped if it didn't, saying "slashdot is censorware!"...

As a side note, does anybody know of any companies that are actually using sourceforge enterprise for interenal development?

Let them make their money

[dodson]

There is nothing wrong with selling value added extensions, as long as they aren't violating the lisence on the original body of code.

The idea has always been pay for people not software.

Custom modifications and services are the only way Open Source will survive.

Free as in Freedom not Beer. Get it.

Re:Let them make their money

[jeroenb]

It's not about whether or not you can sell GPL'ed software for money or not. Ofcourse you can, nothing wrong with that.

The only thing everyone seems to miss is that lots of people especially here on Slashdot keep claiming that the GPL will be the license of the future. That businesses will use it and everything will eventually become GPL. After all, information wants to be free, right?

Now there is this company that has been saying for years that they support Linux and the concepts behind the GPL all the way. Now however, they are trying to find a way for their company to actually make money and the only thing they can come up with is to make proprietary extensions. That's a bit too ironic isn't it? How can you expect a company (meaning: wanting to make money) like Microsoft ever to see the merits of the GPL when a supposed supporter of the GPL turns to the Microsoft model (proprietary software) to make money? That's just ridiculous.

So no, this is not violating any license or law, it's just a slap in the face of all those people who are trying to convince the world that the GPL is a viable license even for businesses.

What good is it?

[MSBob]

I can't see why a company may want to deploy sourceforge on site. Maybe I never worked for a big enough company but unless you have hundreds of projects I can't really see why one might one to have sourceforge in the office. Even when I worked for my biggest ever employer they had some sixteen distinct projects and that was a company with well over a thousand employees. Where's the selling point?

Re:What good is it?

[Jorrit]

I think that a company will soon have a number of projects. Even if you only have three projects (which really isn't much for any company) then it is still nice to have a centralized point to control all this. SourceForge gives you cvs, bug tracker, support tracker, other trackers, message forums, mailing lists, ...

I can certainly imagine this to be very useful for even smaller companies.

Greetings,

Re:What good is it?

[GordonMcGregor]

My employer uses sourceforge internally.

We have approx 8000 designers/ software engineers/ admin and so can quite happily share code and jointly develop projects.

I saw them present this

[Eagle7]

Some reps from VA came by and gave a presentation at my company regarding this product about 2 months ago.

Its actually pretty neat - they'll set up your own internal sourceforge on servers in your organization. And while they are doing it, they'll customize it so that the backend works with all of your already establised CM and problem tracking tools.

The idea is that even if your company makes closed software, you can benefit from a structured way to share code within the company. They can even close off portions with restricted access, so that classified projects (I work for a defense contractor) will only be available to the developers working on it.

The product the and the services they bring with it are really amazing... if I was in charge of such things here, I'd switch over ASAP. I really hope they make a go with this.

Are they planning to sell buggy software ?

[chrysalis]

Sourceforge is a marvellous thing for developpers and it helps a lot the free software community.
However, Sourceforge is very buggy. Sometimes the CVS server refuses authentication. Sometimes, uploading new releases is impossible. Sometimes, I have to authenticate dozens of time. And it doesn't like Opera.
Maybe VA should fix Sourceforge before selling it.

VA logo graphics

[aldjiblah]

Is VA trying to draw its own logo with its stock graph?

The V is getting a little to big, time to move on people.

It does promise good times ahead though!

I'm happy about this

[SweenyTod]

In my opinion, this is a good sign for companies in the future. I mean, we have a company demonstratably commited to open source able to or trying to make some money from their open source. I hope they succeed.

To me it shows that they've understood how to make a living out of the free software fad, and are showing others how to make dollars out of the service industry. Good for them, and I truely thank them for what they've given me in the past, in the form of sourceforge.net and sites like /.

Lets be realistic about LNUX

[Ars-Fartsica]

The target market for proprietary SourceForge extensions is tiny. The market for SourceForge at all, even the free version, above and beyond plain CVS is small as it stands.

While its admirable for a company to strike out for new business, its probably time for the VA execs to fess up to the reality of it - the negative momentum on earnings is too much for the stock to bear. Once LNUX inevitably goes under $1, the dilution of the stock will bring the market cap to ridiculously low levels. Once the market cap gets under $80 million, the assets of the company are valued more than its valuation as a publically traded company (I believe VA has $83 million cash and securities).

Why not just sell off the assets and simply redistribute the funds to shareholders? Really, this isn't a slag on the company or its employees - the math is simply against them. Morningstar has given them five more quarters and then they predict it is all over for them.

I can't figure out why companies insist on spending every last dollar when its obvious that it isn't going to happen.

Re:And this trolling is brought to you by...

[chrisd]

I think you need to understand that once something is GPL'd, you can't un-gpl the released software. For instance, if for some reason the slash code has only been written by folks in VA, (assume no pathces for this argument), and we release version 2.2 under the gpl and from that moment on we never release again, slash is still available uinder the GPL. You can't un-gpl software.

I don't think that will ever happen, mind you. But if it did then fork it and do your own. In fact the same thing goes with SF. IF you want to write the interfaces to rational, pvcs , and open it up. Go for it. Have fun. This is part of what open source is all about.

Honestly, sometimes I think that 99% of open source software is the willingness to do the work. I don't want to sound blasphemous, but it's just software. Anyone can write software and release it. And , looking at some of the code (oss and proprietary) just about anyone has.

Chris DiBona

(speaking for VA)