I just thought I would compile a list of interesting resources about open source in general, not specifically in relation to Splendid CRM or Sugar - I've been spending quite alot of time and effort looking into it all and thought the community might benefit from some of my research.
General:
GPLv3:
Other Stuff:
On a lighter note:
http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Open_source - Features an open source program written entirely in Klingon!
A few more links:
Jaspersoft (who make business intelligence products) have a great whitepaper comparing their Open Source and Professional licenses:http://www.jaspersoft.com/downloads/whitepaper/wp_professional_vs_opensource.pdf
An article vaguely about Microsoft Shared Source...
http://ostatic.com/161583-blog/read-the-fine-print-on-open-source-software
I think it is generally accepted that everybody has different views on what is and what isn't open source, indeed what is and what isn't free software. The problem is there are so many different types of license that the whole genre is a very confused one. Does an end-user really care if the product they are using is GPL, LGPL or MPL or BSD? Probably not... but it matters an awful lot to the people who design and develop software and those who chose to make that source available for the greater cause. Which license you use and how you use it is critical if you don't want to either get stooged, or accidently stooge somebody else.
Obviously some software vendors jumped on the open source bandwagon as a mere marketing ploy - indeed some larger vendors are changing the way they work to accomodate the emerging FOSS marketspace. Our friends in Redmond for example - is it a coincidence that as Redmond opens up, Sun begins it's decline? Will Windows become open source? It's not beyond the realms of possibility, after all there are only so many ways in which you can re-package and resell the same thing - I suspect that when MS opened the book on Office this was really to squash any competition from OpenOffice....
Just 2c for the day
