Linux Community Magazine: Mar 15, 2011

The Slur "Open Core": Toward More Diligent Analysis

The Slur "Open Core": Toward More Diligent Analysis
Mar 7, 2011, 14 :04 UTC (0 Talkback[s]) (674 reads)
(Other stories by Bradley Kuhn)

"I certainly deserve some of the blame, and for that I certainly apologize: the phrase “Open Core” has apparently become a slur word, used by those who wish to discredit the position of someone else without presenting facts. I've done my best when using the term to also give facts that backed up the claim, but even so, I finally abandoned the term back in November 2010, and I hope you will too.
"The story, from my point of view, began seventeen months ago, when I felt that “Open Core” was a definable term and that behavior was a dangerous practice. I gave it the clear definition that I felt reflected problematic behavior, as I wrote at the time:
"Like most buzzwords, Open Core has no real agreed-upon meaning. I'm using it to describe a business model whereby some middleware-ish system is released by a single, for-profit entity copyright holder, who requires copyright-assigned changes back to the company, and that company sells proprietary add-ons and applications that use the framework."

Complete Story

Related Stories:
Editor's Note: Thank You(Nov 24, 2010)
Does ?Open Core? Actually Differ from Proprietary Relicensing?(Oct 20, 2010)
Fear and loathing and open core(Oct 20, 2010)
Shuttleworth denies move toward Open Core(Oct 20, 2010)
Canonical, Ltd. Finally On Record: Seeking Open Core(Oct 18, 2010)
Software Freedom Conservancy Appoints Full-Time Executive Director(Oct 06, 2010)