Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on October 25, 2003 02:29 AM
You obviously don't get it. First, there are business models that work with open source, as has been proven with companies that do make money. IBM makes huge amounts of money supporting open source. Secondly, whether or not developers make money is irrelvant. The problem still exists: do businesses lose their investment because they no longer have access to the software, the code, or licensing, or do the adopt methods where this cannot happen?
I had a similar experince once, although not nearly as dramatic as the AppGen case. There was a flowcharting software application released for the Macintosh called TopDown. If memory serves, the owner (also its primary developer) was diagnosed with some kind of terminal illness, and subsequently passed away. Kaetron Software was no more.
What should owners do, some of who may have invested substantial amounts of time and money into the creation of documents using this software? In my case, the original floppy was corrupted, and I could no longer install it. This kind of situation quite obviously puts people in a bind - I personally believe that the code should have been put in escrow, and absent a subsequent buyer, released into the public domain. I don't see any other viable way to address this kind of situation. You want companies or individuals to take a risk using your product? Fine. But don't back them into a corner if something goes wrong.
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Re:Open source businessmodel doesn't work, period.
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on October 25, 2003 02:29 AMI had a similar experince once, although not nearly as dramatic as the AppGen case. There was a flowcharting software application released for the Macintosh called TopDown. If memory serves, the owner (also its primary developer) was diagnosed with some kind of terminal illness, and subsequently passed away. Kaetron Software was no more.
What should owners do, some of who may have invested substantial amounts of time and money into the creation of documents using this software? In my case, the original floppy was corrupted, and I could no longer install it. This kind of situation quite obviously puts people in a bind - I personally believe that the code should have been put in escrow, and absent a subsequent buyer, released into the public domain. I don't see any other viable way to address this kind of situation. You want companies or individuals to take a risk using your product? Fine. But don't back them into a corner if something goes wrong.
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