SpringSource are not the first 'open source company' to take this kind of approach. Red Hat stopped making the ISO images of production versions of their OS available to the community a few years ago now and I wouldn't be surprised if JBoss and eventually Hibernate ended up the same way if this move appears even partially successful.
The sad thing about Spring is that I can see this move having a negative impact on its adoption going forwards. I don't think 12 weeks is long enough to achieve stability - I'd want a year - and many people will not want the hassle of downloading and compiling the source. I will think twice about using Spring in future projects for this reason. If the customer is willing to pay, then fine. If not, I will adopt another IOC framework. The FAQ that SpringSource has published puts as much spin on as it can get away with. A casual reader would get the impression that the change is very reasonable and nothing has really changed. However what they have done is to make bug fixes more difficult to get hold of. Hey, maybe this is SpringSources' way of getting the community to spruce up and simplify the build process? I guess there is nothing to stop somebody doing what SpringSource won't do - rebuilding and distributing dot versions of the libraries - the only problem is the one of trust because you won't be able to verify that the download is only genuine Spring code. On Sep 24, 6:17 pm, cherro <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > 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 > Financinghttp://www.springsource.com/node/393 > > June 25th 2008: Rod Johnson blogs: Pumping it dry: $200 a barrel and > $25,000 per > CPUhttp://blog.springsource.com/2008/06/25/pumping-it-dry-200-a-barrel-a... > "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 > Policyhttp://www.springsource.com/node/558 > > September 18th 2008: TheServerSide reaction to SpringSource's new > Enterprise Maintenance > Policyhttp://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=22http://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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
