This is looking really promising, but I think you need to make a quick call on the licensing as relying on a framework that's "closed source, freeware" is simply "unreliable" for anyone using uSiteBuilder for implementations.
To spell worst case scenarios out, there two:
The product stop being supported. No way of fixing bugs, etc.
The free version ends tomorrow and gets a pricetag
Whether it's to turn it commercial with a pricetag or making it open source is your call and both options are completely legit, but I think that anyone using your framework needs comfort in knowing what the long term strategy is.
If you really want to give something away, the only right way is to open source it. If you want to turn it into a product, make sure that people knows what to expect before building solutions on top of it.
Thank you Niels, we really appreciate the feedback we got from you and the community!
After discussing this further we decided to open-source the framework. It will be available under the LGPL license. We will soon have the complete source code on codeplex. I'll let you know when that happens.
P.S. we didn't plan to end the free version and add a pricetag to it ;-)
@Sasa, that's awesome news. Thanks for opening it up to community, I'm sure it'll become an incredible asset to a lot of people (me included). I look forward to having a poke around, and hopefully being able to contribute something back (I'm already thinking a contrib project for additional data types).
@sasa: Awesome - this is a wonderful contribution to the Umbraco community! However, is there any particular reason for why you chose to settle on LGPL? It's one of the most complicated and misunderstood licenses out there. For instance it means that everyone who uses uSitebuilder will need to bundle the full source of uSitebuilder in the implementation (one of the more silly side effects of the LGPL - there's several of those).
Thanks for your comments! As we are mostly using products and libraries with LGPL licenses (when we are talking about open source in general with exception of Umbraco) we decided to release this framework under that license as well. We'll be in touch with comunity during framework lifetime and we'll see if this license will be a problem and if we should change it.
@sasa, First of all Awesome package will make a lot of people very happy. Second agree with Niels. LGPL comes with a lot of restrictions (not as much as GPL but still). Maybe you can take a look at the MIT license. This one is very flexible. Basically it says. Use the software, change it if you like and don';t blame us when it breaks. I use it on all the open source packages on our.umbraco.org. Most Packages on our.umbraco.org are licenced by MIT, Umbraco itself is also MIT.
Make a call on sustainable licensing
This is looking really promising, but I think you need to make a quick call on the licensing as relying on a framework that's "closed source, freeware" is simply "unreliable" for anyone using uSiteBuilder for implementations.
To spell worst case scenarios out, there two:
Whether it's to turn it commercial with a pricetag or making it open source is your call and both options are completely legit, but I think that anyone using your framework needs comfort in knowing what the long term strategy is.
If you really want to give something away, the only right way is to open source it. If you want to turn it into a product, make sure that people knows what to expect before building solutions on top of it.
Please choose open source ;)
Second open source option
I am for Open Source. This will only increase the popularity of Umbraco.
Thank you Niels, we really appreciate the feedback we got from you and the community!
After discussing this further we decided to open-source the framework. It will be available under the LGPL license. We will soon have the complete source code on codeplex. I'll let you know when that happens.
P.S. we didn't plan to end the free version and add a pricetag to it ;-)
@Sasa, that's awesome news. Thanks for opening it up to community, I'm sure it'll become an incredible asset to a lot of people (me included). I look forward to having a poke around, and hopefully being able to contribute something back (I'm already thinking a contrib project for additional data types).
#h5yr
@Matt, thx, I really appreciate that!
@Everyone, source code is now available at codeplex: http://usitebuilder.codeplex.com/
@Sasa You guys rock! This will be awesome!
@sasa: Awesome - this is a wonderful contribution to the Umbraco community! However, is there any particular reason for why you chose to settle on LGPL? It's one of the most complicated and misunderstood licenses out there. For instance it means that everyone who uses uSitebuilder will need to bundle the full source of uSitebuilder in the implementation (one of the more silly side effects of the LGPL - there's several of those).
@Niels,
Thanks for your comments! As we are mostly using products and libraries with LGPL licenses (when we are talking about open source in general with exception of Umbraco) we decided to release this framework under that license as well. We'll be in touch with comunity during framework lifetime and we'll see if this license will be a problem and if we should change it.
@sasa, First of all Awesome package will make a lot of people very happy. Second agree with Niels. LGPL comes with a lot of restrictions (not as much as GPL but still). Maybe you can take a look at the MIT license. This one is very flexible. Basically it says. Use the software, change it if you like and don';t blame us when it breaks. I use it on all the open source packages on our.umbraco.org. Most Packages on our.umbraco.org are licenced by MIT, Umbraco itself is also MIT.
But again awesome work!!
is working on a reply...