On Wed, 26 Jul 2006 09:49:34 +0200, "Thomas Bruederli" roundcube@gmail.com wrote:
Hi everybody,
Just wanted to forward a mail I've got yesterday and would like to
hear your opinions about this topic. Either this could make RoundCube
grow faster or atmail just wants to get rid of some (more and more
serious) competition.
I am totally opposed to this idea.
First of all, it would damage roundcube's reputation insofar as there will always be the "better" commercial version of <whatever rounbcude+atmail would be called>. I am sure this would make less people want to even try roundcube. And frankly, I would prefer a smaller, less functional but totally free application over the open source branch of something commercial any day.
Secondly, they are proposing to buy roundcube out, and if I understood correctly, they want to buy the license. That would not only mean that they'll use all of roundcube's features in their commercial product (which I'd simply oppose because the work wasn't meant to be aiding their profit), but also that they could un-open source the open source tree any day.
Thirdly, they want to buy roundcube out. While that may be nice in terms of their business world, I think it's totally inappropriate, because it would be impossible to evenly distribute the money among everyone who's contributed to roundcube during its development.
Call me an FOSS radical, but this offer violates my principles. Not that I have a lot to say, being new here, but still. I'd very much like roundcube to stay completely free as in speech.
Cheers,
mtu