Wow you really put some work into that reply . It was more a rhetorical question, as in I already got the point so if you are saying that I have no idea what the argument is about then there must be something you know that I don't know, obviously not. Maybe I didn't punctuate it properlyretrorgb wrote:Let me break it down for you:kel wrote:Well you tell me what the argument is about then, cause it seems to be your argument. My only point is that none of this is necessary. Markus doesn't owe us anything, open source or not IMHO.
The good:
- Markus has created a great product. He doesn't owe anyone anything. We're all huge fans of his work.
- Becker looks like he created an awesome extension of that product. I'm happy it's out there.
- Matt has done an excellent job getting all of this together and took a giant risk by investing into these. It's many of our opinions that his current distribution model could be more efficient for everyone, including him. Matt seems to agree. I should not have brought that up here, but I felt it was important enough to address. I've praised his website and store for years (and continue to do so) and I expect whatever he chooses to do will be what's best overall.
The debate (the only debate):
The product is called the "open source" scan converter, but is not actually open source: It's a scan converter with open source firmware. It kicks ass and I love it, but the name is confusing, as is Markus' stance on it. It would be nice if Markus posted here and said:
- It's closed-source, it's my design, I'll call it whatever I want and sell it any way I want. Maybe I'll share some files, but it's a closed source project and completely up to me.
or
- It's open source. Here's the licence it's under. Here's the github for everything.
or
- It's closed source now. I'll open source it when I'm done with it. There's no timeframe for that.
Any of those answers is 100% okay by everyone posting here (who knows what they're talking about). Even the huge fans of open source completely respect closed-source projects and totally support people wanting to make a living off selling their products (I really do hope Markus made a good amount of money from this, as he deserves it). The people here are just asking for clarity on what this project actually is: Open or closed.
Is that clear enough?
Even with the reiteration my opinion is still the same as before, that none of this was necessary over a technicality regarding whether or not the OSSC can be deemed %100 open source just because the kicad files were not released but sadly my opinion does not seem to fit into "the only debate" so you chose to conclude that I didn't know what the argument was about.
No worries anyway Markus has said that he will reconsider releasing the kicad files now. So the open source police can sleep soundly in their beds