When open source is not: SupportPRO
Good news! SupportPRO has released an "open source web based Helpdesk system with integrated knowledge base application," called SupportPRO SupportDesk. There's just one problem:
It's not open source.
While the "Why SupportDesk" page declares that "Source Code [is] included...[so that y]ou can modify the software to suit your needs," the license page makes it clear that this right has been superseded by a much more restrictive license.
Yet another example of a company that wants the marketing buzz associated with open source without any of the obligations. Lame.
As for that source code, I looked around for where to download it, starting with Sourceforge.net. Nada. Granted, since SupportPRO isn't distributing the software to me, it has no obligation to distribute its source code to me. But why make software open source if it's not, well, open? Why limit the benefits of open distribution and the lower sales and marketing costs associated with it?
Why, unless you're basically dressing up a proprietary software business in open-source clothes?
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
