Mar 10, 2013, 12:19 AM
Ext.NET Community License changes
Hello,
Discontinuing the "Ext.NET Community" license is being considered.
Before officially making any changes or final decisions I would like to start a discussion and obtain feedback from the community.
The reason is rather simple, basically for five years we've made a dual licensed version of Ext.NET available under the open-source AGPL license, but it's been very difficult to quantify if we've seen any benefit, as they're all theoretical.
The community will "give back" is often held up as a benefit of releasing as open-source. With Ext.NET I can't say I've seen a difference between the amount of giving back between our Pro vs Community members. If you're using a framework you want to see it improve in quality, regardless of commercial vs open-source. If anything we've seen far more giving back to the community from Ext.NET Pro members than Ext.NET Community members. I think because Pro (paying) users have more vested interest in the success of the project.
A few community members have posted samples and shared back with the community (which we are hugely appreciative of), but that sharing back has been limited. I could probably count the instances on one hand. In the vast majority of cases developers using the Ext.NET Community release have not given back or participated in the community. Some to the point of belligerence. It's been mostly a one way street, and that game is getting old.
The community will "help debug" and "fix" defects. Maybe in theory, but in practice it hasn't happened. Your users will always report defects, whether they're developing under a commercial "source-available" or open-source license.
Personally I wish we could release Ext.NET under a far more liberal free and open-source license, although this is impossible because of our dependencies on other libraries. I'm a huge believer in free and open-source licensing, although it would seem some projects work well under this scenario, and others do not.
We have big plans to improve the product, release new products and grow as a company. We need the community to help fund this growth through the purchase of Ext.NET Pro licenses and Premium Support Subscriptions.
Ext.NET Pro has always had a very liberal development license with no expiry date. There are no time-bombs, unlike pretty much all the ASP.NET Control 3rd party market, and standard issue with "30 day demo" products. With Ext.NET you can install, test and develop your project for as long as you wish. We only begin to render an "Unlicensed" message once the project is moved off the development environment.
Please feel free to comment and ask questions and I will be honest and open with answers.
NOTE: For Ext.NET Pro, the full source code would continue to be available in SVN to all Premium Support Subscription members.
Discontinuing the "Ext.NET Community" license is being considered.
Before officially making any changes or final decisions I would like to start a discussion and obtain feedback from the community.
The reason is rather simple, basically for five years we've made a dual licensed version of Ext.NET available under the open-source AGPL license, but it's been very difficult to quantify if we've seen any benefit, as they're all theoretical.
The community will "give back" is often held up as a benefit of releasing as open-source. With Ext.NET I can't say I've seen a difference between the amount of giving back between our Pro vs Community members. If you're using a framework you want to see it improve in quality, regardless of commercial vs open-source. If anything we've seen far more giving back to the community from Ext.NET Pro members than Ext.NET Community members. I think because Pro (paying) users have more vested interest in the success of the project.
A few community members have posted samples and shared back with the community (which we are hugely appreciative of), but that sharing back has been limited. I could probably count the instances on one hand. In the vast majority of cases developers using the Ext.NET Community release have not given back or participated in the community. Some to the point of belligerence. It's been mostly a one way street, and that game is getting old.
The community will "help debug" and "fix" defects. Maybe in theory, but in practice it hasn't happened. Your users will always report defects, whether they're developing under a commercial "source-available" or open-source license.
Personally I wish we could release Ext.NET under a far more liberal free and open-source license, although this is impossible because of our dependencies on other libraries. I'm a huge believer in free and open-source licensing, although it would seem some projects work well under this scenario, and others do not.
We have big plans to improve the product, release new products and grow as a company. We need the community to help fund this growth through the purchase of Ext.NET Pro licenses and Premium Support Subscriptions.
Ext.NET Pro has always had a very liberal development license with no expiry date. There are no time-bombs, unlike pretty much all the ASP.NET Control 3rd party market, and standard issue with "30 day demo" products. With Ext.NET you can install, test and develop your project for as long as you wish. We only begin to render an "Unlicensed" message once the project is moved off the development environment.
Please feel free to comment and ask questions and I will be honest and open with answers.
NOTE: For Ext.NET Pro, the full source code would continue to be available in SVN to all Premium Support Subscription members.