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Re: [directory-discuss] Game plan for 'bait and surrender' and 'freedom


From: David Hedlund
Subject: Re: [directory-discuss] Game plan for 'bait and surrender' and 'freedom betrayed' packages in the directory
Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2016 06:51:38 +0100
User-agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Icedove/38.8.0

I added this to https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Free_Software_Directory_talk:Antifeatures

Crippleware: The term "crippleware" is sometimes used to describe software products whose functions have been limited (or "crippled") with the sole purpose of encouraging or requiring the user to pay for those functions (either by paying a one-time fee or an ongoing subscription fee). - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crippleware
  • From an Open Source software providers perspective, there is the model of open core which includes a feature-limited version of the product and an open core version. The feature-limited version can be used widely; this approach is used by products like MySQL and Eucalyptus. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crippleware#Computer_software

What do you think about the term crippleware to describe 'bait and surrender'?


On 2016-11-19 02:23, Ian Kelling wrote:

On Fri, Nov 18, 2016, at 05:11 PM, Ian Kelling wrote:
On Fri, Nov 18, 2016, at 01:31 PM, David Hedlund wrote:
The term that are already in use to describe this scenario is
       called "open core". We don't use the term "open", at least not
       in a positive meaning, but situation is different. Here we
       actually have the chance to put "open" in negative light.


MySQL is an example: Oracle[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_Corporation]'s MySQL[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySQL] database software is dual-licensed under a proprietary license,
       and the GNU GPL[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_GPL]; proprietary
       versions offer additional features and enterprise support plans.
       - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_core#Examples


Do you think we should use the term "open core" to describe
       partially proprietary software?

I thought about this a bit more, and remembered this blog post:
http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2011/03/05/open-core-slur.html, which can be
summed up that people say open core for a lot of different situations,
and different people have different ideas of what you mean when you say
it, so it's better not to use it. Also, when you explain it, it really
leads you to say open source. Also, people tend to think of it as
referencing a business model of selling proprietary software, but
I don't think the category should really reference that specific
business model, there could be other reasons something fits in this 
category.

I think our other term "Bait and Surrender" is fine, but it looks like
it's going to be essentially the same definition as the f-droid category
"Non free Addons: the application promotes other non-Free apps or
plugins," and that one seems find too, so I think it will be better for
our users to use the same one as F-droid, so that they can use both fsd
and F-droid and understand the label faster and easier since it is
common to both.
Also, in the definition "other non-Free apps" might seem a little
ambiguous but I think better than something like "nonfree version with
more features", which needlessly describes benefits of nonfree software.



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