> I believe in a strong, centralised product vision and execution
Fair point! I'm reminded of this quote from Jaron Lanier:
> Why are so many of the more sophisticated examples of code in the online world—like the page-rank algorithms in the top search engines or like Adobe’s Flash—the results of proprietary development? Why did the adored iPhone come out of what many regard as the most closed, tyrannically managed software-development shop on Earth?
>An honest empiricist must conclude that while the open approach has been able to create lovely, polished copies, it hasn’t been so good at creating notable originals. Even though the open-source movement has a stinging countercultural rhetoric, it has in practice been a conservative force.
I love free software, yet most of the software I use is proprietary. (I consider my own apathy as contributing to the problem...)
As for this point,
- The code will be packaged up and sold by unscrupulous people who will not contribute back
an interesting example is Jason Rohrer, who has open sourced all (?) his games.
The way he got around this is that he made a multiplayer game, where the $20 in effect gave you access to the main server. People indeed repackaged his game, sold it on other platforms etc. Yet last I checked, he was doing better than ever. (Probably cause he keeps pushing out updates to keep the game interesting.)
Not sure how well this works for "single-player software", although Aseprite seems to be doing all right. (Though technically not free software anymore, despite being open-source...)
Nitpick: Aseprite is source-available, not open source by the Open Source Initiative's definition. From the Aseprite EULA [1]:
> (g) Source code.
> You may only compile and modify the source code of the SOFTWARE PRODUCT for your own personal purpose or to propose a contribution to the SOFTWARE PRODUCT.
The OSI's definition of open source [2] permits distribution of unmodified and modified copies (with the exception of lone, unmodified copies; I read somewhere that adding a hello world program is a workaround):
> 1. Free Redistribution
> The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.
...
> 3. Derived Works
> The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software.
"free software" is ambiguous to English speakers/writers, but "open source" is ambiguous in its own way.
By the way, there is a "Fork of the last GPLv2 commit of Aseprite" called Libresprite [3].
Fair point! I'm reminded of this quote from Jaron Lanier:
> Why are so many of the more sophisticated examples of code in the online world—like the page-rank algorithms in the top search engines or like Adobe’s Flash—the results of proprietary development? Why did the adored iPhone come out of what many regard as the most closed, tyrannically managed software-development shop on Earth?
>An honest empiricist must conclude that while the open approach has been able to create lovely, polished copies, it hasn’t been so good at creating notable originals. Even though the open-source movement has a stinging countercultural rhetoric, it has in practice been a conservative force.
I love free software, yet most of the software I use is proprietary. (I consider my own apathy as contributing to the problem...)
As for this point,
- The code will be packaged up and sold by unscrupulous people who will not contribute back
an interesting example is Jason Rohrer, who has open sourced all (?) his games.
The way he got around this is that he made a multiplayer game, where the $20 in effect gave you access to the main server. People indeed repackaged his game, sold it on other platforms etc. Yet last I checked, he was doing better than ever. (Probably cause he keeps pushing out updates to keep the game interesting.)
Not sure how well this works for "single-player software", although Aseprite seems to be doing all right. (Though technically not free software anymore, despite being open-source...)