Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Ask Slashdot: Can Closed Source Software Transition To the GPL Successfully?

Posted by samzenpus on from the making-a-change dept.

colinneagle writes "Open Source guy Bryan Lunduke has experienced the difficulties of migrating a successful closed source project to an open license first-hand, but still believes — or at least wants to believe — that it can be done. He writes: 'Occasionally, someone makes a go of it, to take a good piece of closed source software and release the source code under a nice, open license. In fact, I did just that about a year ago. I tried to take a software development tool (along with some video games) that I had developed (and was earning a good living from) and migrate them to the GPL with continued development funded via donations. The results were...disastrous. Within a very short period of time of going Open Source, the total funding for the projects fell to less than 20% of what was being brought in via sales when the software was Closed Source, which almost completely impeded the ability to fund continued development. Luckily, I was able to recover and get things back on track, but it was definitely not a fun experience.'" How viable is migrating a closed source project to something open?

8 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. OpenOffice by ShieldW0lf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    OpenOffice started as StarOffice. Seems pretty viable.

    --
    -1 Uncomfortable Truth
    1. Re:OpenOffice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If you look at it from an Open Source perspective Open (and Libre) Office are great projects.
      Looking at them from a business perspective, it is hard to make money from OO.o. There is a reason Oracle dumped it at the Apache foundation.

    2. Re:OpenOffice by jimicus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      True, but TFS is actually asking a slightly different question to the headline.

      The full question is "Can a commercial software project continue to bring in enough money to fund itself if it goes open source?". And that is a very good question.

      As regards Star/OpenOffice, Sun bought Star Division. They made StarOffice 5.2 available free (as in beer) but when they opened the source, a **lot** of the code had been licensed from third parties. Sun didn't have the rights to open source that, so they had to subsidise OpenOffice for years while the code that couldn't be opensourced was rewritten. I'd be astonished if they ever covered their costs from it.

  2. You need a compatible business model by 91degrees · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Surely, if your business model relies on selling copies of your software, then going GPL is not going to work. What was he expecting?

  3. Been there, done that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was heavily involved in this on a github project last year. The concept is good, especially if you have enough of the source with clear copyright to put it under a GPL or change license gracefully. But the transition was really painful because all the weird, internal, badly done source control and essentially randomized selection of Perl components came home to roost, and were so embarrassing and so unstable in a more open environment that it was very difficult to get things re-integrated well. Basically, if you don't *tell* anyone you're running Apache 1.3 and storing SSH keys unencrypted on every system you touch, not that many of us will notice besides the crackers until it's far, far, far too late.

    The cleanup was destabilizing and, frankly, cost me my job. But the project is far more secure and on track for safe deployment worldwide now, so I don't feel bad about that.

  4. Here's what really happened by hweimer · · Score: 5, Informative

    1. Last May, this guy announced he would GPL his stuff once he gets $4,000 in monthly donations.
    2. Eight days later, he received a total of $4,000 in one-time donations and released his code under the GPL.
    3. About a month later, he discovered that one-time donations and recurring donations are not the same thing.
    4. Apparently until today, he is whining around how bad this all is and that open source is evil.

    --
    OS Reviews: Free and Open Source Software
    1. Re:Here's what really happened by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      so that's where 'pulling a lunduke' came from.. i heard it once at work but didn't get the reference. http://www.thepowerbase.com/2012/06/pulling-a-lunduke-holding-source-code-hostage/

  5. Morph your business model! by drfuchs · · Score: 5, Funny

    You have to go on tour, and charge for live performances of the bits you created.