Re: Compiere now #1 on sourceforge

[Derek Neighbors]

> Almost everybody on earth, that is, millions of people are using
> proprietary, commercial software.

So that makes it a good choice?

> SMEs live in a world where *all* their software has completely
> closed source and a deliberate strategy to lock in the users,
> exploit them in every way the law allows, I think Compiere is
> breathtakingly open in comparison.

Probably so.

> So, it is kind of sad that the first things out of peoples'
> mouths are " Compiere is not open enough...."   To be
> fair, Compiere is 9000% more open than ANY software
> platform in the world that has more than about 100 users,
> which is about the total user base of most GPL general-purpose
> business/accounting applications.

Sigh.  I just cant agree with you here.  You post this to a GNU Meta 
Package mailing list and are upset that we say 'Not Free Enough'.  What 
did you expect?  The goal of the GNU project is to write Free Software 
specifically GPL anywhere they can.

No one is forcing our morals on you, but when you state the above, thats 
like saying its ok for 'Robin Hood' to steal from the rich because he 
give's to the poor.  (ex: It's ok to not give users all the freedom 
because we give them more than the big bad wolves do.)  If you wish to 
subscribe to that its perfectly ok, but that doesnt mean everyone should 
lower the bar to such standards.

> Somewhere there is a model that results in high quality, 
> highly usable business software getting built, that is
> sufficiently timely and contemporary to keep up with,
> and interoperate with, the commercial software juggernaut.

Can you prove to me that Free Software is somehow not commercial?  If you 
intend to have these arguments you must do so with common terminology.  
Free Software is every bit as commercial as "proprietary" software.

I assume you mean ...the 'propreitary' software juggernaut...

> After Sun is gone we might miss them. I don't have a 
> real big problem with Java.  It has critical mass of developers
> and many excellent products, open source and (gasp) commercial.

Again you confuse terminology here.  There is nothing non-commerical about 
Free Software.  It can be bought, sold and used for commerce just like any 
proprietary software can be.

Critical mass and lots of developers means little if you are enslaved.  
Ask the 60% of Microsoft's customer base if critical mass and large 
developer base sounds good now that they are approaching an upgrade or die 
deathline next month, since they still havent decided to pay the piper 
yet.

> The e-bus. standards community such as ebXML and much of 
> the OMG and OAG etc. etc. lives in the Java platform. That matters.

If you like being a slave certainly it matters, but short of that not 
really.  If I'm say walmart and I say to work with me you need to support 
my FOO protocol, how many vendors are gonna say "go to hell".  Not many 
cause the account is too important.

These 'standards' are rarely standards after years of EDI I can tell you 
no two companies do EDI the same.

> There is no need to badmouth Java.  Microsoft is the enemy, 
> not Java.  Java is about the only thing between us and the
> deep blue sea right now.  If you want extensibility, and reach,
> there is going to be very little choice outside of dot-net and
> Java

Excuse me when is calling a duck a duck, bad mouthing?  No one said java 
sucks, or blah, it was stated that J2ee was not sufficiently free no more, 
no less.

> If something like Compiere comes along, and in the opinions
> of ERP experts, it has good object design, GNUE should be
> studying and understanding it, and enthusiastically interoperating
> with it, converging with it.  Contributing code. building critical mass.

You prove all my arguments perfectly in this paragraph.

If you read my emails, I stated WE TRIED TO DOWNLOAD and evaluate, and 
found we could not with out spending oodles of cash on non-free software!  

If Compiere wanted critical mass in OUR community, they would offer their 
product in a license that didnt screw contributors and would use tools 
that were part of the community.

Clearly you like the 'open source' business model and not the 'free 
software' model, so perhaps GNUe is not the tool for you.

-Derek