Hi All,

Well this topic is about opensource and its future.
The heaven of opensource sourceforge seems to be little off color in the following article

Here is an article which I read few days back about sourceforge, I don't know how much truth or justification is there...but..its enough to open a debate:)

http://www.fsfeurope.org/news/article2001-10-20-01.en.html

The article has been Updated: Date: 2004/07/20 21:15:25..so quite fresh....

Moreover we used to know phpnuke, the most popular CMS was all along free...but now they are charging 10 USD for Version 7.5 ....

There are also stories that people stolen open source code and selling it like their product. Go to the following site of POBS(open source), and click on Links section and read about PHPCryptor

http://pobs.mywalhalla.net/

The author of POBS claims that his open source PHP obfuscator has been cloned by someone from Bulgaria..and he is charging 100 Euros for it..

Are these just incidental or they suggest some chnages going on Opensource world?

Let share what do you think about it (a mild debate may be:) with due respect to all members)

Regards
Krishnendu

This is like saying people who drive cars are now all evil because someone driving a car hit a child. Bad apples exist everywhere, to put some isolated incidences under an umbrella of "all" is foolish and incorrect.

The free software community is immensely valuable to all. The politics, however, are quite complex and many of the more influential members have very strict opinions that “free means free”. For example if you use 1 line of GNU code in your project then your software theoretically become covered by the GNU license and is free. Everyone does not agree and there are newer licenses such as GPL which don’t have such draconian clauses.

The Source Forge article sounds to me as though one of the original authors of the Source Forge is quite unhappy that VA Linux may be moving to a “less free and open” business model. It is not clear that this has any impact on the software distributed on Source Forge but more the distribution platform itself. It describes events that started in 2001 though it was updated recently.

My own view is that the free software community cannot remain exactly the way it is forever. The question is whether they can find a model that retains the power of community contributions, availability of quality software and yet still manage to feed their families.

The problem with open source is not every piece of software is a good candidate for it. A company that spends majority of their time developing software needs to make many at doing so or can not exist. Some products can make no money in supporting or customizing the software, and thus open source would not be a good idea. Situations where they can make money this way, or when a company that doesn't have to spend the majority of their time on that software and just offers some assistance to a project, open source works better.

Thanks,

Neofree

Hi,

I also noticed one more thing.....few open source software became paid(like phpauction) or becoming paid(Like phpnuke)...when they obtained subtantial user base and product became mature....the main problem with open source product has been support..and also the code stealing....

Otherwise its a wonderful concept....:)...I can guess that there will be some changes in open source phenomena..in the coming years...and I hope ....it will just get better:)

Regards
Krishnendu