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Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

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Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#151

Post by jabo »

boucher wrote: post #86
PeterZaitsev wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MongoDB is licenses as SSPL which is non Open Source license all together BUT this is only if you are not paying for MongoDB. If you do chances are you're using MongoDB Enterprise which is licensed under commercial license or MongoDB Atlas all together

SSPL is a nearly verbatim copy of AGPL, except one section. It is more restrictive than the AGPL, in a way that many feel is anti-competitive, which is why it's not considered Open Source by many, but also in a way which doesn't really change the argument here IMO.

In fact, here's a diff of AGPL and SSPL, provided by MongoDB: https://webassets.mongodb.com/_com_assets/legal/SSPL-compare...

They took AGPL and modified it a bit to arrive at SSPL (See Section 13).

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#152

Post by franczesko »

throwayyy479087 wrote: post #49
rocket_surgeron wrote: post #44

Those efforts look impressive but no service will be a version (open source or otherwise) of Amazon until it can place a single tube of toothpaste in my garage 18 hours after I ordered it, which it just did thirty minutes ago. Amazon’s “tech” stack, both consumer- and seller-facing is horrible and borderline irrelevant. Their fleet of trucks and aircraft is not.

Amazon.com is likely the most a/b tested piece of software on the planet. It is ugly and clunky because that's what _works_ - same with Alibaba and Yahoo JP.

"It is ugly and clunky because that's what _works_"

It's a legacy code nightmare, but customers are used to it and this is #1 reason why it will not be changed anytime soon.

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#153

Post by busymom0 »

the_cat_kittles wrote: post #118
rocket_surgeron wrote: post #44

Those efforts look impressive but no service will be a version (open source or otherwise) of Amazon until it can place a single tube of toothpaste in my garage 18 hours after I ordered it, which it just did thirty minutes ago. Amazon’s “tech” stack, both consumer- and seller-facing is horrible and borderline irrelevant. Their fleet of trucks and aircraft is not.

getting stuff that fast is very stupid 98% of the time. people may like it and want it and sing its praises, but its mostly stupid. and i think stupid things generally tend to die out. that is all to say that maybe that edge that amazon has is not that important.

Even if it’s stupid, the sad reality is that most people want things as fast as possible and will always gravitate towards it.

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#154

Post by elkos »

homarp wrote: post #126
bsaul wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My 2 cents : In an ecosystem like this you may want to have businesses build extensions or plugins that they'd sell. GPL has this reputation of spreading to everything it touches, and as such would scare them away.

like wordpress plugin marketplace?

I wish

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#155

Post by jannes »

swyx wrote: post #32
jpatt wrote: post #24

A few points I'm skeptical of: simply connect to the seller’s infra instead of locking them in. One of the value-adds of Amazon is there's a whole bunch of tech sellers don't need to know how to write, run, and maintain. You'd need to understand how big the niche "technically literate to run their own e-commerce business, but selling on Amazon for other reasons" is, then how your operation would answer those "other r…

i think the branding "open source Amazon" is just way too ambitious/big. invites a lot of confusion/criticism if Amazon is different things to different people.

They previously submitted the same link with a different title and got... 3 upvotes.

The Amazon comparison clearly helped to get on the HN front page.

> Show HN: I'm building an open-source order management system and marketplace API

https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=openship.org

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#157

Post by rocket_surgeron »

hk__2 wrote: post #142
rocket_surgeron wrote: post #44

Those efforts look impressive but no service will be a version (open source or otherwise) of Amazon until it can place a single tube of toothpaste in my garage 18 hours after I ordered it, which it just did thirty minutes ago. Amazon’s “tech” stack, both consumer- and seller-facing is horrible and borderline irrelevant. Their fleet of trucks and aircraft is not.

I’m pretty happy to live in world where it’s difficult to build a business where you move trucks around cities to deliver a single tube of toothpaste to someone who ordered it the day before. Yes, it’s hard to do this as fast as Amazon does. But should we really go that way, anyway?

>But should we really go that way, anyway?

Yes.

It is more efficient from an energy, carbon, land usage, and labor perspective.

The bluish-grey van that delivered my toothpaste had several hundred other deliveries on it, and the warehouse it came from stocks the products of hundreds of stores (if not more).

How do you think a tube of toothpaste gets to "Ye Olde Mum and Pop's Auntie Emma's Down Home Crunchy Granola Authentic and Real Indie Small Business"? Trucks.

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#158

Post by ryanobjc »

I used to work in Amazon Supply Chain Systems Software, many years ago. Yes a key component of what amazon does is software, but... that is not all what supply chain systems are. They are human processes, and physical things.

There exists many systems that lets you take orders online and put them in the mail. There are not many systems that lets you cheaply ship things to users in like 1-2 days.

Best of luck!

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#159

Post by rocket_surgeron »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #114
rocket_surgeron wrote: post #44

Those efforts look impressive but no service will be a version (open source or otherwise) of Amazon until it can place a single tube of toothpaste in my garage 18 hours after I ordered it, which it just did thirty minutes ago. Amazon’s “tech” stack, both consumer- and seller-facing is horrible and borderline irrelevant. Their fleet of trucks and aircraft is not.

18 hours is a pretty stupid selling point IMO. You either need something immediately or you can wait. Rarely do I need anything 18 hours from now. I think many sellers would love to not be locked into Amazon and at least use something like this as an additional alternative. I'm on the other side of the table where I avoid buying from Amazon as much as possible.

18 hours is overnight.

Last night "Hmm. Toothpaste almost gone. Let me check the linen closet. Nope. Excuse me while I whip this out. (gasp) Swipe, tap, tap, t-o-o-t-h (autocomplete), scroll, tap, tap, tap. Done."

Used the last this morning, new toothpaste delivered at noon.

I shop online exclusively because one of my first jobs was in retail and it is my solemn duty to do everything I can to annihilate the brick and mortar store, to erase it from existence to the point that it remembered only as a distant cultural echo by future generations.

This is all I can do, and it is enough.

I even get booze delivered so I don't have to stand in line as some tweaker tries to buy lottery tickets with handfuls of quarters at the liquor store.

Despite what the internet might have you think, fulfillment centers for every single distributor or retailer are run the same so I choose amazon because they can get many things here in 4-6 hours, most of the rest the overnight, and weird stuff in two days.

Re: Show HN: I'm building an open-source Amazon

#160

Post by [deleted] »

pushedx wrote: post #61
swyx wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i think the branding "open source Amazon" is just way too ambitious/big. invites a lot of confusion/criticism if Amazon is different things to different people.

I think it’s good marketing. Amazon’s primary source of revenue is as a market-maker/logisticics provider, so why not position yourself as a competitor if it gets contributors interested?

[deleted]
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