> Er, you mean like allowing myself and my colleague Seth Hodgson to > work with the CFE folks? Early days yet but we intend to work on > stuff > like framework support (FB / Mach II) and possibly UML support. Just > remember that we do this in our (not so) copious free time... It > isn't > any sort of official support for CFE, just permission to contribute > on > our own time!
But that's what I think is a mistake. I for one am super-glad that you are able to contribute your time to this list, your blog, Mach-II, and all of the other things you do for the community. What I am suggesting is that MM should make a strategic decision to embrace open source in certain categories, like IBM has done by embracing Eclipse, for instance. I understand that IBM's business model is more geared toward services than licensing, but it still seems to me that MM could be on the front riding that wave as a company rather than merely allowing employees, through individual efforts, to contribute. I'm not an open source junkie, either, I just think some of this stuff is inevitable and forward thinking companies should be part of it. > > For instance, someone could duplicate the data browser function in > Homesite+ by attaching to the RDS servlet. Who better to write that > than the people that know the code already? > > RDS is protected by a number of copyright / other measures so you > won't see an open source hook for that. Besides, Eclipse already has > a > number of database plugins (I use DBEdit and like it a lot). Then that could be a feature reserved for a paid, value-added version of an Eclipse-based IDE. It seems to me that other companies do similar stuff. I don't know the ins and outs of licensing, though, so I'm not sure how that would work. IBM does it with Websphere Studio. > > It might be MM's position that they will not contribute to open > source because it eats into their revenue base > > We already contribute extensively to Axis and several other Java Open > Source projects so I'm not sure why you'd say that. Projects like Axis don't pose a direct threat to the MM revenue base, but CFEclipse, for instance, could be seen as a direct threat. I'm not even a big fan of Eclipse at this point, but it has potential. What I see is the potential for MM to directly support the Eclipse community, and help build a platform on which to sell licenses for high-end IDE products. MM seems lately interested in targeting enterprise customers and seems less interested in selling to small shops or individuals. That's great, but why not build some of that stuff on the open-source platforms that the small shops or individual developers will be using? Then you provide a bridge for people who start out small with free tools. As they build their skills and transition to more professional tools, they will be looking at tools they already know and understand. I will post my thoughts to John's blog. :-) Rob ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Find out how CFTicket can increase your company's customer support efficiency by 100% http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=49 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:4:189756 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:4 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.4 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
