Lukas Kahwe Smith4d ago

I have just come across #FairSource https://fair.io/

It seems like it could have the potential to be a better compromise than #OpenCore when it comes to monetization of #OpenSource through a single vendor development model.

The single vendor retains the ability to generate income not only from support but also from licensing fees.

Customers get the source code, can tinker with it and deploy it how they want. But most importantly they can fork.

Software Sharing for Modern Companies | Fair.io

Fair Source is an alternative to closed source, allowing you to safely share access to your core products. Fair Source Software (FSS) can be used with minimal restrictions, and becomes Open Source after a period of time.

Show threadLukas Kahwe Smith

In order to "cleanly" fork a #FairSource codebase, one would want to at all times have a license lifetime that extends as far as the deferred open-source release. This way one would be able to just keep things running as is.

But the bumpy part are bug fixes and security fixes. Since I would still have a license, I can deploy all fixes. But they will come mixed with new features, to which my license will expire, creating a time gap until these features will also become open source.

Mar 18 at 10:14amWeb