

FusionCharts mocks open source but uses it extensively - Ovid
http://blog.overseas-exile.com/2014/02/fusioncharts-mocks-open-source-but-uses.html

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pallavn
Thanks for letting us know your stance on this but you have got the reading
wrong. Let us clarify.

When we say hobby projects, we don't mean open source projects at large. We
mean those charting libraries that an enthusiastic developer decides to build
over a weekend, as a learning project, and release to the world. Developers in
other organizations looking for a charting library come across it, pick it up
and start implementing it in their applications. The initial results feel
good, but as soon as the developer moves onto implementing advanced
capabilities, they start running into product limitations, cross-browser
compatibility issues etc. And when they go back to the creator trying to get a
fix for it, the developer has abandoned the project because it was a hobby
project for him and his day job is keeping him busy. At this point, if you
want to stick with the same product, you've 2 options; either extend the
project yourself, or find someone who can do it for you - both of which could
be distraction for your main development, and delay execution for you.

We have been in business for over 11 years now and have seen a lot of players
like this that come up, and hence our stance. As an enterprise, when you are
building an application, charting might not be your core strength. And hence,
when you are looking for someone to take care of that, you need to find
yourselves an enterprise-grade charting component. Not only does that cover
you on the product part of things and meaningful implementations that can
inspire you, it also gives you extensive documentation, assurance that it will
continue development and that when you have a tech query, you can go to a
support team that will be there when you are running on a tight deadline and
need a fix.

That being said, we are not against open source at all. A good chunk of our
own development tools and infrastructure are open-source. There are some good
open source charting libraries as well, which we have listed in a competitor
comparison table on our website at www.fusioncharts.com/javascript-charting-
comparison/.

Here's a good read on when choosing a commercial library, instead of open
source library, for a niche purpose makes sense -
[http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/581146/8-reasons-to-
choo...](http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/581146/8-reasons-to-choose-
commercial-library-instead-of)

But, at the end of the day, the decision is in your hand - for, developers are
the king-makers!

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pthreads
I call BS. Hobby projects doesn't mean open source. You are the one
interpreting it as such and then claiming that is what FusionChart is saying.

~~~
cujo
I said the same thing on his blog and he called me out for posting
anonymously. Real fun guy.

~~~
bmelton
Not sure if you had the same problem I did. I also replied on the blog,
selected "use my Google Account" to reply, but it never actually asked to
authenticate me, and my response ended up being attributed to 'Unknown'.

Regardless, I agree that the author has misconstrued the intent. Flagging.

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hiphopyo
Who cares about FusionCharts anyway when we have D3.js.

~~~
pallavn
d3.js is a great library and we love the capabilities. However, there are
clear use cases for both, which have been highlighted @
[http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-capabilities-of-D3-js-
whi...](http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-capabilities-of-D3-js-which-cannot-
be-achieved-using-fusion-charts)

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restlessdesign
Since when does a hobby project automatically equate to open source? Sure, the
wording is still shitty, but I don’t think you have to view this as a direct
attack on open source.

I agree that you’re probably reading into this too much. But that’s okay—by
posting it up to HN, you were able to get a larger sampling of devs to run it
past! :)

~~~
Ovid
"I agree that you’re probably reading into this too much. But that’s okay—by
posting it up to HN, you were able to get a larger sampling of devs to run it
past!"

That's certainly true :)

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duiker101
Flame post with no basis. Avoid.

