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Business Objects to Join Eclipse Foundation
daria42 writes "Business intelligence specialist Business Objects is the latest software maker to join the Eclipse Foundation, and says it will move several products onto the open source platform -- but it's not yet saying which. 'We won't fight it, we'll embrace it,' said one of the company's executives in Sydney last week, talking about the open source software model. 'One of the reasons we've chosen to go with the Eclipse platform, rather than any of the other open source types,' she said, 'is that [Eclipse] actually has a model where vendors can sell value-added products into it, but still provide the service components.'"
It looks to me like They're joining an initiative for opensource objects that offer a bit of open source but allow the real meat of thier offerings to be pay? So, adobe has been doing this for as long as i can remember with thier pdf reader, why didn't business objects join adobe :)
Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
Which business? And why are they objecting? Seriously, there should be at least SOME details in the synopsis.
Eclipse actually has a model where vendors can sell value-added products into it, but still provide the service components.
WTF does that mean. You can look but cant touch?
Then again maybe it's just my slightly paranoid conscience jumping to silly conclusions.
Open Source is Not a Platform.
Open Source is Not a Platform.
Open Source is Not a Platform.
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...but I was overshadowed by a brighter Java developer.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
So I have to ask: What is it about business that it objects to Eclipse?
Pining for the fjords
But much like most other corporate entities that do this, while we don't know which products they will release open soruce, I'm guessing it won't be the one that they typically charge six figures for in license fees.
I do like Business Objects though, it's a decent platform.
Hurry, time is limited, supplies are running out!
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
"One of the reasons we've chosen to go with the Eclipse platform, rather than any of the other open source types," she said, "is that [Eclipse] actually has a model where vendors can sell value-added products into it, but still provide the service components."
Isn't this as much about the license of Eclipse (which is generally similar to the Apache license) than it is about the platform? The subtext I read was this:
"One of the reasons we've chosen to go with the Eclipse platform ... is that [Eclipse] will let us sell value-added products based on it for profit while taking advantage of all the OSS work that has gone into it."
As much as it is a Good Thing that big companies like IBM and others are making forays into the OSS world, it's hard for me to swallow the way they cover up their greed with a nice shiny license that lets them use it however they want. Sure, there are other OSS products that are under very similar licenses, and it's all up to the owner on how they want to license it, but in many ways it kills the spirit of OSS that I enjoy to begin with.
On the other hand, it's one hell of a way to start a community - "here, we don't care how you use this code (package it, sell it, etc. as you please), but this part of it we'll make open to everybody." Write a solid base, and let companies have at it.
http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/10/20/esa/index. php
Oh my god do I feel sorry for you. Custom reporting solutions have often been descriped as a pile of crap. Business Objects, the current owners of Crystal Reports (Formerly of Seagate, Crystal Decision, and lord knows what other companies) has long been considered the best of these options. In otherwords, they were/are the best piece of crap solution available. Microsoft (insert booing and hissing here) has finally decided to create their own reporting solution (SQL Reporting) which from what I've heard is a significant improvement over CR XI (yes, 11 versions and there are still limitations on Cut and Paste)
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
The Eclipse project has been working on business reporting for quite some time. They presently have a rudimentary BIRT module (Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools) that, for its limited breadth and depth, is actually fairly impressive. One of Business Objects' competitors, Actuate, already has a product built on top of Eclipse.
Hopefully, this shift will pan out as a move to better integration of Crystal Reports with web services without having to shell out for Crystal Enterprise. Up through the present, most of Crystal's eggs have been placed in the COM basket so that reporting is best automated through Windows programming. This is great in that you can automatically connect to a database, run a report, export the output and email the export in a few dozen lines of VBScript. But if Business Objects is moving to web services, it will offer a great deal more flexibility as automation will no longer be restricted to Windows.
I use to think Firefox was the big one, the computing world mover.
Firefox is kid stuff compared to the impact Eclipse is starting to have. My entire company's development has been unified under Eclipse. Developers can seamlessly move from platform to platform. Writing extensions is trivial and only requires a moderate amount of Java experience, which most already have or can have quickly.
Eclipse has suddenly made Linux a first class development platform. Eclipse has turned a huge number of Windows engineers into Linux engineers who write for Linux first and run Linux at home. I can't describe the feeling of freedom and cleanliness that has brought to our company.
Thank god I will never have to touch that piece of garbage Visual Studio again.
I understand your confusion on this matter. Business Objects is not saying it will open up the source code for any of their products. Instead, they're announcing planned integrations between their products and Eclipse. In the article is also a reference to Macromedia currently working on an Eclipse integration called Zorn. It's completely acceptable for Business Objects to sell closed-source products that are extensions to Eclipse. That's sort of the business model that Eclipse fosters.
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Has Eclipsed Eclipsed Netbeans? Is anyone using Netbeans in the real world?
I used to use it 2-3 years ago, don't hear much of it nowdays.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Lol, still clamoring for Netbeans are you? Too bad. And the kicker is all this Eclipse publicity is not focusing any light on Java because Sun refuses to embrace it because they didn't do it.
The next version of the Macromedia flash IDE is also based on eclipse. In this version they have made a seperate product for application development called Flex