Don't you just wish Rev would do this?

[Peter T. Evensen]

Microsoft seems to be doing very well without open-sourcing its 
development tools.

I'm not sure what open-sourcing has to do with scaling.  Are you talking 
about user-base or scalability of Revolution itself?

I think "open source" is almost a fad/buzzword; I'm not sure how 
important it really is when it comes right down to it.  In order for 
open source to be of any use, it needs an active developer community 
that is maintaining and enhancing the code (at that without any economic 
incentive).  OpenDarwin didn't work out, would OpenRevolution?  How many 
of you want to muck about in the Revolution engine and freely contribute 
enhancements (and make sure those enhancements work across Mac, Linux, 
and Windows in all the different flavors)?

Right now we have a team of dedicated developers working on improving 
and enhancing Revolution, developers who have a big economic stake in 
the success of the product.
 
Peter Alcibiades wrote:
> David writes:  "Both are much much harder in my environment with a pure closed 
> source solution - and it is getting harder."
>
> The issue really is powerlessness, not just against the supplier, but against 
> events beyond the control of the supplier.  Hypercard showed one form of this 
> very clearly.   You can get orphaned as a user, no matter how much goodwill 
> and committment the supplier has.  The problem is that the number of 
> attractive open source alternatives of which this is not true is multiplying 
> all the time.  
>
> It may be very hard to make money by open sourcing your bread and butter, but 
> it also may be very hard to get your product to the scale it needs to be and 
> can be, while keeping it closed, so its not risk free either way.
>
> If you were consulting to Rev, you'd say this was one that had to be looked at 
> very carefully.   But my goodness, it would be a bet the company kind of 
> decision.  Good luck, if you are thinking about it.
>
> Peter
> _______________________________________________
> use-revolution mailing list
> use-revolution at lists.runrev.com
> Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences:
> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
>
>