Open Sourcing a Failed Startup

#1

Post by nirvdrum » Fri, Nov 21, 2014, 4:14 PM UTC

Open Sourcing a Failed Startup
nirvdrum.com

Re: Open Sourcing a Failed Startup

#2

Post by hw » Fri, Nov 21, 2014, 4:40 PM UTC

most of the time it's extremely hard to just go open source when a startup dies. There's issues of ownership and also the amount of work needed to get a typical startup codebase clean, refactored and open source ready is difficult. It's kinda like having a garage sale and giving everything away - it's hard to give away or sell every single thing, but parts of it might be useful to the community.

Re: Open Sourcing a Failed Startup

#3

Post by buckbova » Fri, Nov 21, 2014, 4:44 PM UTC

So what now? Did you get a day job?

Honestly, there shouldn't be any rush to do anything. You released some good tools, and that's fine.

Re: Open Sourcing a Failed Startup

#4

Post by johncoltrane » Fri, Nov 21, 2014, 4:45 PM UTC

Open source… the dumpster of the startup world.

Re: Open Sourcing a Failed Startup

#5

Post by bhouston » Fri, Nov 21, 2014, 4:49 PM UTC

johncoltrane wrote: post #4

Open source… the dumpster of the startup world.

The quality of open source from startups vary significantly, but so does open source in general.

Re: Open Sourcing a Failed Startup

#6

Post by mahouse » Fri, Nov 21, 2014, 4:53 PM UTC

johncoltrane wrote: post #4

Open source… the dumpster of the startup world.

This is a very disrespectful comment.

Re: Open Sourcing a Failed Startup

#7

Post by maaaats » Fri, Nov 21, 2014, 5:04 PM UTC

What I hate is that some people feel entitled to getting one's hard work for free.

Re: Open Sourcing a Failed Startup

#8

Post by forkandwait » Fri, Nov 21, 2014, 5:05 PM UTC

bhouston wrote: post #5

johncoltrane wrote: post #4

Open source… the dumpster of the startup world.

The quality of open source from startups vary significantly, but so does open source in general.

The quality of software varies significantly in general, we just get to see the open source.

Re: Open Sourcing a Failed Startup

#9

Post by mindcrime » Fri, Nov 21, 2014, 5:10 PM UTC

Luckily this is one decision I'll never have to make if we ever fail and shutdown. All of our code is Open Source, ASLv2 licensed, and has been from day 0. Well, OK, maybe not a few internal tools and things, but all of our product code is OSS already, on GitHub and ready to go.

We consider this a strong selling point to our current prospects, actually. There's no fear of vendor lock-in, they can kick us out tomorrow and get a new vendor to support them, they have 100% freedom to modify the code and tailor it to their needs if we don't provide what they need, and - if we close up shop - they have options for future support, whether it means supporting it themselves, or paying someone else to do it. But access to the code will never be a problem.

Re: Open Sourcing a Failed Startup

#10

Post by Dylan16807 » Fri, Nov 21, 2014, 5:11 PM UTC

maaaats wrote: post #7

What I hate is that some people feel entitled to getting one's hard work for free.

No, that's not the issue. People object to useful IP rotting in the back of a filing cabinet, unused. It's not about getting it free, it's about being able to get it at all.

(Some people may want things for free but that's a different issue.)