I'm really glad that they've made a conscious effort to be transparent in the fact that this is not open source. That said, I'm less sure how I feel about the movement as a whole. I admire the desire to make source code transparently available, and let people use it for free, but I think strict open source is the best net good for the world we live in. I can run apps on Linux in any cloud I want to because every cloud is free to run it. And so I benefit from getting to choose among competitors (including self hosting) where that doesn't exist in a world where competition is forbidden.
It's also ironic to me that this software is being built on top of git, and thus is a business model entirely dependent upon FOSS, while wanting to differentiate and build a business on top of it with a moat but still sharing the code in a way that protects them. It just seems like an uncomfortable position straddling the fence between two paradigms.
Maybe I'm privileged in the fact that I've always lived comfortably enough in my career to feel like I can write and release OSS under the most permissive terms (whether it's used or not). But that feels like the best way to give back to the movement that effectively led me into this career for free, and lets me pick from offerings that are forced to differentiate on price or other features rather than whether they can license the software.
It's also ironic to me that this software is being built on top of git, and thus is a business model entirely dependent upon FOSS, while wanting to differentiate and build a business on top of it with a moat but still sharing the code in a way that protects them. It just seems like an uncomfortable position straddling the fence between two paradigms.
Maybe I'm privileged in the fact that I've always lived comfortably enough in my career to feel like I can write and release OSS under the most permissive terms (whether it's used or not). But that feels like the best way to give back to the movement that effectively led me into this career for free, and lets me pick from offerings that are forced to differentiate on price or other features rather than whether they can license the software.