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There is No Open Source Community

Posted by Zonk on from the you-can't-see-me-i'm-invisible dept.

porkrind writes "There is no Open Source Community is an Onlamp article about the economics of open source and how most people get it wrong. Really, open source is much more about supply and demand than it is about an activist community or individual drivers (individuals or individual companies) affecting change on society." From the article: "Taking the position that individuals have pushed open source forward leads to the conclusion that a core group of ideological 'believers' is necessary for the continued success of open source software. Businesses unaware of the falsehood of this claim are too afraid of running afoul of the 'open source community' and sometimes make decisions that are not in their financial interests. Both open source-based and proprietary software vendors need to challenge these assumptions."

1 of 367 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The Corporate Nightmare & Employee Torture by mccalli · · Score: 0, Troll
    "The GPL doesn't restrict use in any way..."

    Admittedly as applied to the original poster's situation that may be so, however as a general point in using the GPL with your development, eg. linking to libraries etc., it is still an obligation that must be cleared. You may not even know what the eventual plans for the code you're writing are - perhaps they're going to resell the system at a later date? In which case you've just created a situation which requires approval first.

    "On the other hand, if you use any software that has a EULA, an actual use license, then you are perhaps agreeing to something when you start using it. But I've never seen any open source software with a EULA."

    The specific producst mentioned were Sun's JDK (which we'll skip as it's not open-source), Eclipse and Apache. So looking at the final two.

    From the Eclipse Public License page:
    "THE ACCOMPANYING PROGRAM IS PROVIDED UNDER THE TERMS OF THIS ECLIPSE PUBLIC LICENSE ("AGREEMENT"). ANY USE, REPRODUCTION OR DISTRIBUTION OF THE PROGRAM CONSTITUTES RECIPIENT'S ACCEPTANCE OF THIS AGREEMENT. ".

    From the Apache License page:
    " TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR USE, REPRODUCTION, AND DISTRIBUTION"

    (emphasis added by me).

    So yes, the licenses discussed have terms for use. And the JDK certainly does.

    Cheers,
    Ian