John Roberts has taken some flak for his open source position. But that's not the reason for SugarCRM's announcement today that it has gone to GPLv3 for its Community Edition (formerly called "Sugar Open Source"). You can view the FAQ here.
I've been talking with John for months (years, actually) about this, and it has always been on the radar. It has always been a matter of "when," not "if."
John and the SugarCRM team founded the company on the ideals and promise of open source. Now no one would challenge their right to do call themselves such.
Including Eben Moglen, executive director of the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) and outside counsel to the Free Software Foundation:
... Read moreThe Sex Pistols once sang about "Anarchy in the U.K.," but that's not how we should view this news that the British government has rejected an extension to its 50-year copyright term. This is the same government that rejects software patents.
Looks like the land of Mary Poppins is ahead of us Yankees in how it views intellectual property.
Not everyone, of course, agrees:
... Read more
Years ago, my wife and I used to religiously enter everything from our checkbook into Quicken. Unfortunately, we did very little analysis of how we were spending beyond "too much" or "just right." We knew exactly how much we were spending, but not why or where.
Years have passed, and we have become even worse about managing our money. When big or out-of-the-ordinary chunks of cash (bonus, consulting, whatever) come in, we're good at applying that to car loans/etc. such that we have no debt beyond our mortgage. But we still stink at managing our money, in part because we don't have anyone advising us on how smart people manage their money.
So, today, I gave Wesabe a spin. I've known about Wesabe well before it became a company, having discussed it with Marc Hedlund while he was still an EIR with O'Reilly Media. The basic idea: harness the power of a community to analyze one's spending and to get collective help (tips, etc.).
Open source finance, if you will.
... Read moreI asked a friend today (we'll call him "Bryce Roberts" to protect his identity) about his experience with the iPhone. He was a heavy Blackberry user before, so I wanted to find out how the transition was going. He said:
It's actually given me a healthier relationship with email (and my family). Because it's so hard to type on this thing, I spend a lot less time with the device.
How's that for a technology coup? Sexy enough that people want to use it, but unusable enough that they don't. I'm actually thinking of buying one now. I could do with a lot less time on email. Now if only it could solve the blogging problem....
Tim O'Reilly had a fireside chat (minus the fireside) with Marten Mickos during today's Executive Radar at OSCON. Marten, ever insightful and pithy, didn't disappoint.
Here are a few of the things that caught my attention most in Marten's comments:
... Read more
Peter Galli at eWeek is reporting on Intel's open sourcing of its Threading Building Blocks 2.0 software, a C++ template library that simplifies the development of software applications running in parallel. The software solves a big problem: helping developers write applications that live and breathe well in a multi-processor world.
Intel is not doing this out of pure charity, though after spending some time with Dirk Hohndel this morning, I think there is some of that involved. No, the more value people find in applications, the more applications they'll buy/systems they'll buy. That helps Intel.
Intel, however, shows its open source acumen in how and why it's open sourcing TBB:
... Read more
Yet another former Oracle executive has decided to go after his former boss. This time it's Don Klaiss, and he has taken the reins of Compiere. Jorg Janke assumes the role of CTO.
Klaiss is shaking things up already, changing Compiere's management team and its business model. As well as its sales targets:
... Read more
Today is Pioneer Day in Utah, a day when Utahns reflect on the sacrifice that brought 70,000 people 1,300 miles across the United States into present-day Utah. My own family was part of this group. In fact, there's a wonderful quote from Brigham Young about the Asays when he bumped into them while traveling in Southern Utah. He critiqued their sloth in still living out of their wagons, but said they made him the best fish dinner he'd had. Some things never change.... :-)
As I look back on what my family and others did, I'm impressed by how hardship focused and shaped the thoughts and feelings of a people. While some of the pioneers suffered greatly in making the trek, for others it was more hearty inconvenience and discomfort. But for all, it was a formative time.
Years later, a group that hadn't been through the ordeal criticized those who had for foolishly leaving late in the year, such that the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies were caught in a terrible winter. Here's the response from one who had lived through it:
... Read morePORTLAND, Ore.--Tim O'Reilly is giving a keynote speech at the Ubuntu Live conference, even as I type. I spoke just before him, and he's now throwing out much of what I said. :-) (I argued that we need to be more religious about open source, not less, by which I meant "filled with passion," not "filled with fury toward unbelievers," which is not a religion that I've seen much of here.)
O'Reilly is talking about the rising tide of Ubuntu, using book data, search data and other things (see right) that lead him to believe that Ubuntu is clearly growing in popularity. Tim warns, however, that we need to not get infatuated with open source qua licensing but rather need to think about how it (and, in this case, Ubuntu) fits into the larger technology conversation.
For instance, what would happen if Ubuntu succeeded in becoming the dominant "L" in the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Python/Perl) stack? ... Read more
As the world moves online, open source - in terms of licensing - becomes more problematic, as as has been covered ad nauseum. Luis Villa has been thinking through what the Open Source Definition means in an online world.
Luis is soliciting contributions from others, and given the importance of the effort, I'd encourage you to help out.
