Re: [tlug] GPL vs. paid version and ethics

[Darren Cook <darren@example.com>]

>> In that particular case I was curious about "Multi-core query
>> execution". I wondered what would happen if I were to add that feature
>> (*) to the GPL version.
> ...
> So, does a hobbyist need multi-threaded query execution? Or he can do with
> the simple mechanism?

You're implying an open source license is just for hobbyists?

Even in commercial environments there are good reasons to prefer open
source. I've written long complex scripts to patch behaviour for some of
my clients because they're reliant on a closed source system: a feature
we need isn't there, it is easy to add, but the vendor give us a large
quote and a 2-month lead time to add it on. We need it before the
futures contracts expire in 10 days time.

A similar situation with bugs: when a bug affects us, we're highly
motivated to fix it; to the vendor it is just one of many that they have
to prioritize to decide with of their future releases to target it for.
I've had to spend twice as many hours writing little scripts that run
every minute to monitor and fix the effect a bug has than it would've
taken to fix it in the source.

In the original ICE vs. IEE matrix I posted [1] the only things that
have positive value in my eyes are: a) support; b) immunization from the
GPL virus.

Darren

[1]:http://www.infobright.org/Learn-More/ICE_IEE_Comparison/
 (the GPL virus immunity is not mentioned directly: it is number 10 in
their "Top 10 Differences between ICE and IEE" PDF.)

-- 
Darren Cook, Software Researcher/Developer

http://dcook.org/work/ (About me and my work)
http://dcook.org/blogs.html (My blogs and articles)