Re: [libreplanet-discuss] [fossil-users] [OT] Who's interested in project management & collaboration tools? And...

[Miles Fidelman]

Mark Holmquist wrote:
> > > Of course, maybe I've misunderstood the purpose of this list. If so,
> > > I invite dissent!
> >
> > Freedom is not necessarily incompatible with charging a fee for access
> > to a distribution service that happens to contain specific GPLed 
> > content,
> > assuming that's what Miles meant by "limited release."
>
> No, the model is thus:
>
> Pay $X for the software after release
> Pay $X+2Y for the software during beta
> Pay $X+3Y for the software during alpha
> Pay $X+4Y for the source code after release
> Pay $X+5Y for the source code during beta
> Pay $X+6Y for the source code during alpha
>
> My problem is that he's releasing the software to people, but not 
> giving them the source code, or the ability to change it (in fact, 
> since he's clearly not using the GPL for these releases, the source 
> code could still be under restrictive licenses). Stopping that 
> behavior is exactly why we're on this list.

Absolutely wrong.  All code will be released GPL (or other open source 
license - also looking at Apache, BSD, MIT) - alpha, beta, full public 
release.  And source code will included (actually, sort of hard not to, 
since we're talking JavaScript embedded in web pages).

What I'm trying to do is:

1. offer some incentives for contributing to the kickstarter effort

2. try to limit dissemination during alpha and beta to those who are 
likely to test and contribute (I really don't want to inflict really 
early code on folks who simply want a usable tool - I figure that's 
doing them a disservice)  (note: since the alpha and beta code will be 
available as source, under GPL, there's nothing stopping further 
dissemination - just that I'm not going to be pushing the early code on 
the world)

3. try to limit load on our servers, particularly since they'll be in 
constant flux during early development (note: again, the server-side 
code will be available and GPLd, but the protocol definitions and code 
will be in high flux until release 1.0)

4. try to limit impacts on my time - I need to spend my time coding and 
building up initial server-side infrastructure - interacting with a 
limited base of alpha and beta users helps move things along; 
interacting with a larger user base starts to eat up more time than 
available (I'd like to have things just a little more solid, and have a 
bit of a contributor community in place before going "public")

I hope that addresses your objections.

Miles






--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.   .... Yogi Berra