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Open Source, Closed Documentation?

Posted by Cliff on from the now-this-is-just-plain-odd dept.

sunset asks: "Recently I was motivated to look at WebGUI which looks like a pretty cool open source project. However I was having trouble making it work with Red Hat 8.0 which includes Apache 2.0. This seems like a reasonable thing to want, as Red Hat 8 has been out since September and Apache 2 has been publicly released for close to a year. Checking the WebGUI community discussion forum, I found that someone else had already inquired about this. Following the rest of the thread, you learn that the product's vendor considers this information to be proprietary, and that you must pay $50 to join their Support Forum to get the information. It gets better. The associated Membership Agreement for the Support Forum includes the clause 'You shall not to share [sic] the information contained herein with any other party.' So if I join up, I am locked out of sharing valuable information with the open source community about how to install this open source product. In the end I found out what I needed to know without giving up my rights or my hard-earned bucks, but frankly this attitude from the vendor pisses me off. Am I alone in this? What do you think?"

14 of 490 comments (clear)

  1. Darn Corporations by c0wh · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think it's completely asinine that a company thinks it can charge a fee for a product or service they provide.

    Greedy bastards!

    1. Re:Darn Corporations by unicron · · Score: 4, Funny

      This is kind of different. He's not asking the company to come to his house and configure the shit for him, he merely wants to get it to work with some rather common other programs(& os's). This is equivalent to buying a car, asking the dealer "Yo, biotch, how do I get the trunk open?" and he replies "Gimme 10 bucks and I'll tell you."

      --
      Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
    2. Re:Darn Corporations by JordoCrouse · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Yo, biotch, how do I get the trunk open?"

      Not calling him biotch would be a good start.

      --
      Do you have Linux and a DotPal? Click here now!
  2. Re:Silly goose by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    If I wrote a book that was so good people wanted to take the time to copy it and give it away outside of stores, I'd be flattered.

    If they did that with my second book, I'd sue. :)

  3. Oh please by Anixamander · · Score: 3, Funny

    I fully agree...if a company won't give me the product for free and then support it for free, then I'm not going to not give them any more of my money.

    Seriously, if open source is going to thrive (not merely survive) then corporations will have to take it up and that will require making money off of it somehow. If the only way this company sees to make money off this product is by selling the documentation, then they need to make sure they don't just sell one copy. If you have a problem with this, then to me that is an indictment of the feasibility of the open source model...not an indictment of the company that just wants to make a profit (or at least break even).

    --
    Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball(TM)
  4. count your blessings by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    if it was M$ it would cost $100, it wouldn't work, and you wouldn't be able to fix it yourself

  5. Help! The Big Mean Company Is Abusing Me by Eravau · · Score: 4, Funny
    Help! The big mean company who spent thousands of dollars on programming and just gave me the results for free won't give me the documentation they spent thousands of dollars paying a writer to create. That does it! I'm never spending another cent with them again! They'll regret losing me as a customer! That'll show 'em!

    Oh wait...I never did spend any money with them.

  6. okay, it's been about an hour by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    This story has been posted for about an hour now. Where can I download the information for free?

  7. Sorry you didn't word it in the form of a question by coupland · · Score: 3, Funny

    Proper format would be:

    Ask Slashdot: Have you noticed that all Ask Slashdot articles lately have only been bitchy whines about the crappy content on this site and how everyone that reads /. these days is just a tourist? Am I the only person who has noticed it and how do you think we can reverse this growing trend in the community?

  8. Re:Well... by wcb4 · · Score: 2, Funny

    because if they give it away for free, they are not very enterprising. A more enterprising individual would figure out how it worked, write documentation, adn get O'Reiley to publish the "someSoftware in a Nutshell" book

    --
    I reject your reality ... and substitute my own.
  9. Re:Well... by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    "No it MUST not. What is this some law of physics?"

    I'd respond to that but I'm not obligated to. You can have an answer if you pay me $100. What I've said so far is just a teaser.

  10. I am educated by stinky+wizzleteats · · Score: 3, Funny

    Oh. So that's why Debian is supposed to be so much cooler than Red Hat.

    I'm off to Debian's site to install it for the first time...

  11. What a great feature! by compwiz · · Score: 2, Funny

    I love the first item on the Features list:
    ISI Certified Open Source Software - Therefore, of high quality and freely distributable.

    Because you KNOW software is of high quality if it says Open Source.

    Then it goes on even further..
    Dynamic URLs for easier marketing. This keeps the URL short rather than being terribly long:

    Theirs: mycompany.com/garden/tools/showproduct.asp?prodID= 352
    WebGUI*: mycompany.com/product352

    Because nothing says "click me!" like product352.

  12. Re:Excellent use of time... by dipipanone · · Score: 2, Funny

    You must place absolutely no value on your own time.

    Hey, he's reading Slashdot isn't he? That's a given.