Opensource your abandonware (2010)
pulkomandy.tk
Opensource your abandonware (2010)
1–10 of 61 posts
Re: Opensource your abandonware (2010)
#2Relatedly, consider adding them to https://www.codeshelter.co.
Re: Opensource your abandonware (2010)
#3Relatedly, consider adding them to https://www.codeshelter.co .
Woah, never knew about codeshelter. Thanks!
Re: Opensource your abandonware (2010)
#4Open Source Flash from Adobe would be great.
Re: Opensource your abandonware (2010)
#5Anecdotally, the .tk domain is a great idea in principle for giving so many people the opportunity to have their very own namespace for free. But like so many free things, bad actors(spammers, et. al) ruin it for the rest of us.
Re: Opensource your abandonware (2010)
#6Open Source Flash from Adobe would be great.
I would love Opera's Presto engine to be open sourced. A few days ago I've read taht there are extreme memory optimizations so that it could be run on centralized servers for their Opera Mini variant. Also we really need more browser engines.
Re: Opensource your abandonware (2010)
#7Here is the problem though: let's assume that the developer really wants to release the source code, but the problem is that they have used a third-party library where they cannot legally release because they simply don't have the rights to it. This complicates open-sourcing that software (this is already proven from time-to-time, for example the OpenJDK Java runtime needs to and has changed third-party components like the colour management system, font renderer and media framework). This can be worked around on actively-developed software or if the community wants to be involved on open-sourcing that software, but if it is being abandoned I don't see the incentive to replace these components.
Moreover, comments. From expletives to actual trade secrets, a company needs to audit the code to ensure that at least the trade secrets have been removed from the source code. For example, even though Microsoft does not release the Windows/NT code widely, there are checks to ensure that expletives and comments that might cause severe repercussions (i.e. political statements) are not inserted. However, this is definitely a lesser concern to individual or small-group developers.
(Plus tooling issues etc, but considering that the massively-popular and ported Doom exists, it might be solved by the community. However, software which no longer has a community will encounter these issues.)
Re: Opensource your abandonware (2010)
#8On the software side, it would be nice of the developers to do so, no harm to them and a great benefit to those still using the program.
Now on the hardware side[0] there's a mismatch in incentives: an otherwise functioning piece of hardware is unable to perform certain tasks (some that even were advertised at the time of purchase) due to changes in the software or it not being compatible to updates elsewhere in the ecosystem[3], all of which could easily be fixed with software updates. The companies selling these obviously say to buy the newest version, but that feels like a waste of resources and money to me. As much as I try voting with my wallet, I think this is getting worse with more "smart" devices, where there is little choice.
[0]: I noticed this post is right below a post on a GPS issue concerning a Garmin smartwatch I own [1], that might get this update because a famous blogger posted about it, but not other fixes, like podcasts since Catalina [2] [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25620372 [2]: https://forums.garmin.com/apps-software/mac-windows-software... [3]: I have an iPad 3 lying around, which is mostly useless to my workflow because it doesn't sync the Safari bookmarks, can't install an alternative browser and doesn't include most icloud features. Another example are routers and other consumer networking equipment, that frequently end up not getting updates soon after release.
Re: Opensource your abandonware (2010)
#9May this also interest community:
Re: Opensource your abandonware (2010)
#10Definitely don't. Nothing good will come to you from it.
You abandoned it for a reason and only people who'll benefit from it are other people. That would be fine if it was not at your expense. Someone may look at the source code and contact your support or even take you to court because one of your programmers ignored license of a third party library. You could get it audited and re-write parts of it... even so, there is a non-zero risk that someone will come after you.
If you're OK with that, do what you want. Otherwise, by default, don't opensource your abandonware.