

Death by Cloud - How Amazon is Killing Open Source Software  - Garbage
http://www.keeneview.com/2011/04/death-by-cloud-how-amazon-is-killing.html

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JoachimSchipper
The author is essentially arguing that platform-as-a-service companies like
Amazon reduce the need for e.g. MySQL support contracts. This is probably
true, but "killing open source software" is overblown.

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wladimir
I'd argue it helps open source software: more people are using it. Pretty sure
that Amazon EC2 caused a lot of people to try Linux servers.

I also don't agree that Amazon support is entirely comparable with a real
MySQL support contract. If you need a feature that requires changes to the
code, the original developers are a better choice.

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dangrossman
That situation won't ever occur. Once an individual/organization has chosen
Amazon RDS, Amazon support versus MySQL support won't be a discussion. You
have no direct access to the servers, so you can't make code changes.

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bad_user
Companies producing open-source need to make money too -- that's not anything
new.

This is the reason why open-source is a commons resource for software
developers, but it cannot overtake commercial software for consumers, and
rational people could see this coming.

You can also think of it as the commoditization of the software industry, much
like Rentacoder. Companies that sell packaged software are against it,
companies that don't (i.e. IBM, Oracle, Google) are pro.

    
    
        The open source community has tried 
        to fight back. For example, the new 
        Affero GPL license (AGPL) ...
    

IMHO, AGPL is the product of sower grapes, and the realization that Free
Software needs a business model to survive, which isn't easy when your first
customer can redistribute your software freely.

What AGPL truly allows is for dual-licensing to work for server-side products.
But what it also boils down to is that such a company isn't in any danger of
having any kind of commercial competition from forks (i.e. the perfect natural
monopoly over something that should be public commons), which is something
Free Software was supposed to solve in the first place.

AGPL is not open anymore and I don't know how it could pass the open-source
definition -- because AGPL is an EULA that restrict what users can do with
said software, usage rights that don't have anything to do with redistribution
by the normal copyright definition.

AGPL is only Free depending on which side of the dick you're standing.

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JoachimSchipper
Certain groups[1] have always tried to eradicate commercial software. AGPL is
just the logical adaption to the current environment.

Also, given that BSD and GPL advocates can debate about which is "more free"
for hours, I don't think "free" is a very useful word in this kind of
discussion.

[1] "It's called GNU/crazy!"

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bad_user
Yes, but by going by the definition of both Open Source and Free Software, I
don't think AGPL qualifies; that was my point.

Going by the Free Software definition, which is a lot more relaxed about terms
and simpler:

    
    
        (0) freedom to run the program, for any purpose
        (1) change it to make it do what you wish
    

How about changing it into something that has an output for which I own
copyright / redistribution rights, such that I can sell it?

If the output of a program can be considered derived work of that program,
than freedom (0) is bitch-slapped. And if redistribution is not involved, then
freedoms (2) and (3) don't enter the picture; which is why AGPL is trying to
redefine what redistribution means.

It's a word-play and I don't know how this was Open Source certified, which
makes me think that the process itself is broken (bias towards FSF maybe?).

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latch
Not sure how this is Amazon, or even cloud specific. Any hosting company,
traditional or not, can build enough internal expertise to circumvent support-
contracts with the OSS provider.

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franze
amazon and other cloud services are lowering the access barriere to an
advanced server infrastructure significantly. (hey, even i as a private user
now have a few instances (i.e.:vpn) in the cloud).

the cake gets bigger -> more demand for support services.

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gregjor
nonsense

