What makes a successful open source project?
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What makes a successful open source project?
 
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Re: What makes a successful open source project?
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On Feb 5, 2007, at 10:55 PM, Jonathon -- Improov wrote: > Interesting article my boss dumped on my desk today. > > See http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml? > articleID=197002953 . It's an interesting article, though it does seem to be afflicted by the amazingly contagious disease of believing only in "commercial open source", in spite of referencing some large non-commercial (ie community-driven) projects, and not really differentiating the really very significant factors involved in each. If you have ANY questions about the authors opinions in this direction, read his next article, a great blinders-fully-on article about Postgres, showing a clear misunderstanding of community-driven projects: http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197002954 > Hope that doesn't mean I'm about to lose my job soon for going with > OFBiz. :P For what reason? Are you seeing something I'm missing? -David |
smime.p7s (3K)
Re: What makes a successful open source project?
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Re: What makes a successful open source project?
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On Feb 6, 2007, at 2:20 PM, Jonathon -- Improov wrote: > > If you have ANY questions about the authors opinions in this > direction, > > read his next article, a great blinders-fully-on article about > Postgres, > > showing a clear misunderstanding of community-driven projects: > > > > http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197002954 > > That article confuses me. Is it saying that "more core developers > does not equal better support"? Seems more like it's saying "it's > not easy to get paid and committed support because many support > companies are not sticking with providing PostgreSQL support for > some (unexplained) reason". failed in their attempt to compete in the PostgreSQL service and support market, and therefore users should be wary of using the software. Doesn't quite make sense to me. In fact, I'd say that this is a good sign that there attempts by larger organizations to compete using things other than quality of service is a very good sign. It's a sign that there are no major artificial barriers to entry for service providers, things that are anti-competitive (as so much of the commercial software industry thrives on), and are VERY bad for customers. They result in lock-in and force system changes rather than just service provider changes when something goes wrong. So, for me the evidence he sites leads to a very different conclusion... one that supports the inherent stability and strength of community-driven open source projects that have an adequate contributor and service provider base. OFBiz is not nearly as big as Postgres, but I think we hit the critical mass point for long-term survival a year or two ago. -David |
Re: What makes a successful open source project?
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Re: What makes a successful open source project?
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Re: What makes a successful open source project?
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Re: What makes a successful open source project?
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Re: What makes a successful open source project?
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In reply to this post by jonwimp
On Feb 6, 2007, at 4:56 PM, Jonathon -- Improov wrote: > I agree about the critical mass. That's the biggest reason I "bet > my career on OFBiz" (in my boss' words) in the first place. I see > many competent OFBiz engineers popping in an out of the MLs. > > Problem is I don't see many contributing back. Guess you're right > about some of the "dark side" of open source projects. > > Do you think actively training/creating more OFBiz engineers will > explode the rate of development of OFBiz? Or is that gonna further > fuel the "take out without putting back in" syndrome? to predict this are... well... actually I think my years of mistakes in trying to predict this have only taught me that you never know what will get someone to contribute. It is necessary to have something to push you into spending enough time with OFBiz to get your head around it, and to have something that will keep you coming back to the project frequently. If you want an inside view on one of my evil plans related to OFBiz: this is the reason why I'm not a big fan of releases or stabilized branches. In general people using those cannot effectively collaborate with people developing new stuff and contribute to the trunk. Still, such releases are important for the long term success of the project, and hopefully we're getting to the point where we are really ready for that. Though I'm not totally convinced, we'll find out soon, because we are doing it! As has been discussed the release branch is coming around the end of March. The success scenario for that is that enough people use it to help back-patch bug fixes from the trunk, and in general maintain and stabilize it. -David |
Re: What makes a successful open source project?
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In reply to this post by jonwimp
On Feb 6, 2007, at 9:05 PM, Jonathon -- Improov wrote: > David, > > This is for ONLY if you have time. Time? Me? That would be awesome. > Article aside, can you quickly give your opinions of OFBiz in terms > of the following factors as per http://www.informationweek.com/ > shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=197002953 ? > > The factors are: > > - A thriving community > - Disputive goals > - A benevolant dictor > - Transparency > - Civility > - Documentation > - Employed developers > - A clear license > - Commercial support > > Please read that article's definition of those factors. Some > factors could be misnamed, like "A benevolent dictator" doesn't > quite refer to a kind and generous leader but more like a > proactive, wise, firm and creative one. > > Just a quick rating will do. But any elaborations on your ratings > will be nice too. these topics. I think this is a case where an outsiders view may be more interesting than an "insider's" guess at these factors. In general, no, I don't think Apache OFBiz is perfect on all of these fronts. Chances are no open source project is, unless you're talking to someone in the marketing department... ;) -David |
Re: What makes a successful open source project?
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