Tag: Evergreen

  • Open source and the hyphen

    Open source and the hyphen

    You may have seen the repeated fights over whether open-source software should be spelled with a hyphen or not. It just flared up on Wikipedia, again. The rules are clear, in my opinion. Still, the situation is a misery. First things first: If “open source” is used as an adjective (attribute) in front of a…

  • How to think about a dependency on commercial open-source software

    How to think about a dependency on commercial open-source software

    Another day in open source land, another vendor relicensing away from an open source license to a source-available license. What was new for me this time, however, was that Apache Flink, a community open source project, had a dependency on Lightbend’s Akka, the commercial open source project that relicensed. This is surprising, because in my…

  • What is open collaboration?

    What is open collaboration?

    Open collaboration is collaboration that is egalitarian, meritocratic, and self-organizing.

  • What is open communication?

    What is open communication?

    Open source collaboration requires open communication, they say. Just what is open communication, exactly? Drawing on past research [1], here are the four principles that make communication open. Open communication is communication that is The benefits for open communication as practiced like above are plentiful. It allows asynchronous communication and is inclusive of non-native speakers.…

  • The GNU Public License v2 in the land of microservices

    The GNU Public License v2 in the land of microservices

    Another question I get asked is how containers and new architectural styles like microservices-based architectures relate to copyleft licenses, in particular the GPLv2 license. First things first: I don’t recommend taking a “let’s work around this pesky license” approach. You should follow both a license’s spirit and letter; license evasion (“Umgehungsversuch”) may not hold up…

  • Open source license compliance and work-for-hire

    Open source license compliance and work-for-hire

    A common question that I am asked in my seminar on license-compliant delivery of products that contain open source software is: But what about a work-for-hire? We are a consulting company: As we work for our clients, and use open source software, do we have to create all those legal notices? The answer, as so…