This is a good write up of why you shouldn’t give away the house when you open source things. The issue was really this:
Earthly being open-source, Earthy Satellite users were already seeing the benefit from 95% of Earthly CI.
I’m a huge fan of open source, however, if your business model includes an open source model - you need a differentiator. Beyond blazingly fast(tm). You need a reason for people to offer up their credit cards, or better, their accounting PO process. You need a feature you withhold or a service you provide from the open source offering to make it appealing.
GitLab restricts CI/CD to paying customers. Travis/CircleCI limit on build time/credits unless also open source. Azure DevOps is the devil. ArgoCD is complicated. GitHub actions are nice if you have hardware to run the runners. Swarm’s of Jenkins is what most are used to in the enterprise.
As a former Director of DevOps, my immediate question will be what features make me want to buy vs host myself. I’m technically capable. Why should I buy with you when I can run my cloud and my DevOps pipelines for my workforce the way that makes the most sense for my business? Help me make the most sense.
*EDIT* I'm not suggesting withholding features that are critical for the software to operate, but withholding business features that provide support or enterprise-level integration. Even making it tiered so the power users pay less because they support it more themselves?
I’m a huge fan of open source, however, if your business model includes an open source model - you need a differentiator. Beyond blazingly fast(tm). You need a reason for people to offer up their credit cards, or better, their accounting PO process. You need a feature you withhold or a service you provide from the open source offering to make it appealing.
GitLab restricts CI/CD to paying customers. Travis/CircleCI limit on build time/credits unless also open source. Azure DevOps is the devil. ArgoCD is complicated. GitHub actions are nice if you have hardware to run the runners. Swarm’s of Jenkins is what most are used to in the enterprise.
As a former Director of DevOps, my immediate question will be what features make me want to buy vs host myself. I’m technically capable. Why should I buy with you when I can run my cloud and my DevOps pipelines for my workforce the way that makes the most sense for my business? Help me make the most sense.
*EDIT* I'm not suggesting withholding features that are critical for the software to operate, but withholding business features that provide support or enterprise-level integration. Even making it tiered so the power users pay less because they support it more themselves?