Hacker News Reader

Comment by pjmlp | Hacker News Reader

I rather much prefer this, than giving away fake FOSS that gets closed down as soon as there is no more VC money for free beer.

View on HN

Something either is or isn't FOSS, there is no "fake". If nobody wants to pick up maintenance after the original developers pick up their bags and move on doesn't make something any less of FOSS.

Oracle and RedHat laughing their a++ out while reading this comment.

Try using RedHat Linux without a paid from them and complain all the way to the court that "it is FOSS".

I don't know what does you mean with "using RedHat Linux", but if it is FOSS then i can use it as i want. If i can't then it isn't FOSS. There is no middle ground there, there is a widely accepted definition about what FOSS is and being able to run it as i want is a major aspect of it.

That just reveals lack of experience on the topic, my suggestion is to take some time to look into the licensing model of both cases I've suggested earlier and learn why a middle ground exists.

You're not an expert on the topic and very likely this kind of licensing knowledge is not even relevant to your daily life. Nevertheless, there are nuances on OSS licensing that differ drastically from what you understand as "widely accepted definition".

It is, because it was based on an hidden agenda of "bait and switch".

This is a nonsensical take. The whole point of FOSS is that is can't be closed down.

Stoping development, moving new versions into proprietary licenses, and having no one around with the resources to pick it up is basically the same thing, for all practical purposes.

I treat picking uncommon OSS packages as adopting a bit of software. As I verify the tests look good, the build system, the api, the correctness, etc I also consider the code style and whether I (or my team) could maintain/patch it if needed. Adopting a bit of OSS is saving me some initial work, but doesnt absolve me of my responaibility to maintain it in the future. My business doesn't care whether the bug is one I wrote or one I greenlit externally, they just want the business app to work well.

Case in point, Elasticsearch and Terraform.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com