Open Source (Almost) Everything
tom.preston-werner.com
Open Source (Almost) Everything
1–10 of 85 posts
Re: Open Source (Almost) Everything
#2The article begins by discussing their choice to open source an integral part of their product. The article ends with an admonition: "Don't open source anything that represents core business value." It seems like Grit certainly represented core business value, yet they open sourced it.
I'm guessing that what they really mean is that you should open source almost everything that represents core business value, but one piece should always be left out. Or, perhaps they're saying that their web interface is the core value they provide, and so they open source everything but that.
Re: Open Source (Almost) Everything
#3The article begins by discussing their choice to open source an integral part of their product. The article ends with an admonition: "Don't open source anything that represents core business value." It seems like Grit certainly represented core business value, yet they open sourced it. I'm guessing that what they really mean is that you should open source almost everything that represents core business value, but one…
I think you're reading "core business value" too broadly. Github might not exist without Grit, but the crucial test is that Grit might exist without Github. Grit itself --- the ability to interface with git --- it's something specific to the functionality of Github, it has broader applications. This isn't something true of Github, and neither is it true of their Jobs site, since it has (apparently, never used it) direct and deep integration with Github.
Re: Open Source (Almost) Everything
#4The article begins by discussing their choice to open source an integral part of their product. The article ends with an admonition: "Don't open source anything that represents core business value." It seems like Grit certainly represented core business value, yet they open sourced it. I'm guessing that what they really mean is that you should open source almost everything that represents core business value, but one…
If your product relies on the network effect for its success (as GitHub does) and you've already established yourself, it doesn't seem to me that open sourcing your software would be a bad idea. See Reddit as another example.
Re: Open Source (Almost) Everything
#5I've generally come to the conclusion that open sourcing tangential software is a good cultural/social practice. Adopted broadly, it represents a gigantic time-savings for our industry, allowing us to collectively push forward to other more interesting problems than writing company-specific ci server/build system/source control system, etc.
+1, GitHub.
Re: Open Source (Almost) Everything
#6I'm currently debating whether to release the source to one of my dead projects, so the reasoning in this article is quite intriguing.
Re: Open Source (Almost) Everything
#7The article begins by discussing their choice to open source an integral part of their product. The article ends with an admonition: "Don't open source anything that represents core business value." It seems like Grit certainly represented core business value, yet they open sourced it. I'm guessing that what they really mean is that you should open source almost everything that represents core business value, but one…
Reading on, "Open sourcing it would mean thousands of people worldwide could use it to build interesting Git tools, creating an even more vibrant Git ecosystem."
Awesome Git bindings to Ruby are critical to the functionality of Github, but a vibrant Git ecosystem is essential to its success. Business value trumps technical implementation.
In fact, Tom also mentions the libgit2 library that Github is working on, and may even replace some of what they use Grit for today.
Another point: Zurb recently open-sourced their CSS/JS framework that they use to build all their client sites/apps with. They have spent years making it awesome. It's a major part of the material goods that they hand over at the delivery of a project. After it being opened up on Gitub, they've seen lots of great feedback, bug fixes and enhancements. I'd also bet they've seen an increase in new clients. What they wrote is awesome and now they are known to many more potential customers as being the people who know what they are doing.
Business value trumps technical implementation.
Re: Open Source (Almost) Everything
#8Sometime I wonder if it is possible to open source everything without becoming some sort of service company, like Redhat.
The only example I can think of is makerbot industries in which their core technologies are open source.
Re: Open Source (Almost) Everything
#9I have a question for the OP... Why the MIT licence, and not putting your code in the public domain? Is it the liability issues, or the attribution, or something else?
I mainly pose this question because I am choosing a licence for my projects, either the MIT/Apache licence, or public domain.
Re: Open Source (Almost) Everything
#10Sometime I wonder if it is possible to open source everything without becoming some sort of service company, like Redhat. The only example I can think of is makerbot industries in which their core technologies are open source.
makerbot has the distinct advantage of having open-sourced a (largely) physical product. For me at least, paying them for the bits and pieces to put their printer together would be an order of magnitude less effort than compiling and installing some software downloaded from the internet. They still offer a valuable service in manufacturing parts, and hence don't have to just sell support to make a living.