[NBLUG/talk] [nblug] Help with locating good software

Ron Wickersham rjw at alembic.com
Tue Oct 21 11:43:11 PDT 2008


On Tue, 21 Oct 2008, Scrappy Laptop wrote:

> Just to expand on Andru's point,
>  
> commercial software != closed source
>
> There are a wide range of 'open source' licenses ranging from the various GPL/LPL (give credit and give back any changes) versions  to the BSD license (do with it what you want but give the author credit) to Microsoft's open source license (in which the source is viewable but by license the user cannot modify nor distribute it).  They have nothing to do with whether or not the author / company charges for the software and/or support.
>
> So, please distinguish between 'commercial / non-commercial' and 'open source/closed source'.  Even within those distinctions there is often great overlap; perhaps what you want is 'free as in beer' rather than 'free as in speech'...and, many of the 'commercial' products you are referring to are the same code as their 'community' version; the value being sold is support and other assistance or convenience.
>
> As Andru mentioned RT has a commercial product that they sell as a fully supported version and in my opinion it is well worth it if within your budget.  That said, they also have a 'community' product that is free for the download as well as forum-style support for the open code, and the programmers work with said community to continuously improve the product.  If you are going to be using RT in a production environment and you do not feel confident that you can support the code on your own, buy the support.

while some companies have different versions that are sold as commercial
releases with support, and a "community" version that doesn't have all the
capabilities of the commercial version, so far as i am aware, Jesse Vincent 
and his team at best practical provide the whole RT system in the freely
downloadable version...there is no slimmed down "community" version in this
case.

the commercial offering is for installation, configuration, and support
assistance, each individually available, you don't have to buy more than
you need.

>   Just my .02, I have no connection to RT other than being impressed with the product and the people that created it. 

+1

-ron
>
>
>
> --- On Tue, 10/21/08, Andru Luvisi <luvisi at gmail.com> wrote:
> From: Andru Luvisi <luvisi at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [NBLUG/talk] [nblug] Help with locating good software
> To: "General NBLUG chatter about anything Linux, answers to questions, etc." <talk at nblug.org>
> Date: Tuesday, October 21, 2008, 8:53 AM
>
> On Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 8:11 AM, Matt Kirk <mkirk at sonic.net> wrote:
> [snip]
>> Kayako is a commercial support product but OTRS and RT are open source
>> projects.
> [snip]
>
> RT is both commercial and Open Source.  Best Practical develops it
> commercially (for the purpose of making a profit), supports it
> commercially, and sells books for it commercially.
>
> Andru
>
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