Comments on: Know your code, know open source http://blogs.the451group.com/opensource/2008/02/04/know-your-code-know-open-source/ A blog for the enterprise open source community Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:46:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Boycott Novell » Don’t Start Unnecessary Wars. Give Palamida a Break… http://blogs.the451group.com/opensource/2008/02/04/know-your-code-know-open-source/#comment-182504 Boycott Novell » Don’t Start Unnecessary Wars. Give Palamida a Break… Wed, 06 Feb 2008 10:50:24 +0000 http://blogs.the451group.com/opensource/2008/02/04/know-your-code-know-open-source/#comment-182504 [...] The 451 Group added to the discussion by mapping the players in this market and stressing that it’s a matter of understanding (or orientation), not removal. This space is also getting rather crowded on the face of it. It used to be there were only a couple of players in town who combed through software code, specifically looking for open source packages and licenses: Black Duck and Palamida. A year ago, we figured there was plenty of room for additional players… [...] [...] The 451 Group added to the discussion by mapping the players in this market and stressing that it’s a matter of understanding (or orientation), not removal. This space is also getting rather crowded on the face of it. It used to be there were only a couple of players in town who combed through software code, specifically looking for open source packages and licenses: Black Duck and Palamida. A year ago, we figured there was plenty of room for additional players… [...]

]]> By: Matt Graney http://blogs.the451group.com/opensource/2008/02/04/know-your-code-know-open-source/#comment-181250 Matt Graney Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:08:58 +0000 http://blogs.the451group.com/opensource/2008/02/04/know-your-code-know-open-source/#comment-181250 We agree that open source software in the enterprise is here to stay, and welcome FOSSology adding its voice to what <a xhref="http://www.krugle.com/">Krugle</a> and others have been saying for some time. As its growth continues we will face an inevitable question: licensing aside, at what point does FOSS become practically indistinguishable from in-house, proprietary software? In other words, is there any difference between integrating with FOSS versus integrating with a module writeen by another team, or another vendor? We're already hearing from our customers that it boils down to the same problem: how can developers get up to speed on code that they didn't write themselves? Naturally, we think the answer is search because it drives discovery and adoption of FOSS in the first place (within the bounds of a company's open source governance rules), and then makes its use more efficient. After all, if you can't find code, you can't fix it; you can't reuse it; and you can't learn from it. We agree that open source software in the enterprise is here to stay, and welcome FOSSology adding its voice to what Krugle and others have been saying for some time. As its growth continues we will face an inevitable question: licensing aside, at what point does FOSS become practically indistinguishable from in-house, proprietary software?

In other words, is there any difference between integrating with FOSS versus integrating with a module writeen by another team, or another vendor? We’re already hearing from our customers that it boils down to the same problem: how can developers get up to speed on code that they didn’t write themselves?

Naturally, we think the answer is search because it drives discovery and adoption of FOSS in the first place (within the bounds of a company’s open source governance rules), and then makes its use more efficient. After all, if you can’t find code, you can’t fix it; you can’t reuse it; and you can’t learn from it.

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