On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 5:41 PM, Wouter Tebbens wouter@freeknowledge.eu wrote:
Here's a quote from the FLOSSresearch project: "Open Core (previously called “split Free Software/proprietary” or “proprietary value-add”): this model distinguishes between a basic Free Software and a proprietary version, based on the Free Software one but with the addition of proprietary plug-ins."
A small side note, "Open Core"[1] terminology is really misleading on two aspects :
- A lot of companies are releasing some free software and they often claim that is their "core infrastructure". It's often an exaggerated statement and only contains some minor elements of an overall proprietary software. It's often much more behind but they only use free software as a marketing tool.
- The terminology is leading to confusion with the "OpenCores"[2] project which is really following the principle of 4 freedoms for their hardware design.
IMHO, the "Open Core" terminology should be avoided.
adulau
[1] http://alampitt.typepad.com/lampitt_or_leave_it/2008/08/open-core-licen.html [2] http://opencores.org/ - http://opencores.org/projects