Hey Guys, I hope you will discuss the controversy surrounding the SpringSource announcement in the next newscast.
I've been using Spring heavily for about four years, and the news was not a surprise, but disappointing. Having stewed on it for a few days, I think that there may actually be some benefits, but we'll have to see how it plays out. I think the two big problems are that: 1) SpringSource handled the announcement badly - clarifications came forth piecemeal while the community had a meltdown on TSS. 2) (Exacerbated by #1) SpringSource has lost a lot of trust - such that even if people can accept the new policy (which is essentially dual licensing), there will be the lingering question of what comes next given SpringSource's obligations to their investors. I think its particularly hypocritical of Rod Johnson to have recently criticized Oracle for raising prices on their product line (when they had their customers 'over a barrel' after the BEA acquisition), only to do the same thing for Spring months later. Cheers, Chris. Some links: June 24th 2008: SpringSource Announces $15 Million Series B Round of Financing http://www.springsource.com/node/393 June 25th 2008: Rod Johnson blogs: Pumping it dry: $200 a barrel and $25,000 per CPU http://blog.springsource.com/2008/06/25/pumping-it-dry-200-a-barrel-and-25000-per-cpu/ "With Oracle’s recent announcement of a price hike for their products, including WebLogic Server, this is no longer a theoretical issue. They have the oil, and they think they have existing customers over a barrel. The need for alternatives is now even more painfully clear." August 27, 2008: SpringSource Press Release: "Demand for Spring Expertise Continues to Soar" http://www.springsource.com/node/521 September 17th 2008: SpringSource Announces Enterprise Maintenance Policy http://www.springsource.com/node/558 September 18th 2008: TheServerSide reaction to SpringSource's new Enterprise Maintenance Policy http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=50727 September 20th 2008: Rod says that source code and branches will be available to the community: http://forum.springframework.org/showpost.php?p=202771&postcount=3 "The source code will be available to the open source community, so those with the ability and willingness to contribute will be able to compile the latest source on the appropriate branch". September 21st 2008: Rod opines that people were overreacting on TSS: http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=50727#269512 September 22nd 2008: Rod clarifies: No release tags in source repository after the "3-month" period. http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=50727#269606 "Source code will be published in the source repository. After 3 months SpringSource will continue make maintenance releases as needed to support our customers. There will be no tags in the repository corresponding to those releases." Various people have observed the time intervals between major releases. Some examples: http://forum.springframework.org/showpost.php?p=203235&postcount=22 http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=50727#269613 September 23rd 2008: SpringSource Releases FAQ to address concerns: http://www.springsource.com/products/enterprise/maintenancepolicy/faq --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
