Open source: flavour of the month

Sam Varghese
Friday, 16 February 2007 04:05

Opinion and Analysis

Of what use is source code when you have to sign a non-disclosure agreement that specifically states you agree to not releasing any tweaked versions of the application? Forget the idea of commercialising the application, if you can't even share it with a few others to find out their opinion of your hacking efforts, is it really of any benefit?

As with every other business model, there will be scam merchants in the mix. Open source is a double-edged sword. Giving source code away under a licence like the GPL means that others can take your ball and run with it - and probably develop a much better end product than you were able to. At the same time, it means that you can incorporate those changes back into your version of the product and improve it.

Preferable to the muddying of the open source pond is the giving away of proprietary software. Such products are often far superior to those that have a price tag. To some extent, it is a way of gaining users but the user does benefit.

Take Pegasus Mail, for example, the best mail program for the proprietary Windows platform. The author, New Zealander David Harris, releases the package free and charges for the manuals. (Harris also produces a mail server called Mercury). Admittedly, to get the most out of the application, one would need to do some reading. Some people buy the manuals out of gratitude for getting such a fine program for nothing.

Harris has been often asked about porting his mail program to Linux. Initially, he firmly said no. A little less than two years ago he was convinced that he could go open source. But to date he has not been able to do so because he is a one-man show and can find no sponsor to back his project.