[pmwiki-users] Commercialism in PmWiki

[Carlo Strozzi]

On Wed, Aug 23, 2006 at 05:03:40PM -0500, Patrick R. Michaud wrote:
> 
> This doesn't mean there will be two versions of the software, 
> it only means that PmWiki will be available under two licenses...
> the General Public License and a more traditional software
> license that can (must) be purchased.

Hmm, GPL'ed does not mean money-free. I mean, you don't need a second
license. All you need to do is to provide a paid support service to
corporate users, and possibly paid-for (but still GPL'ed) extensions.
And of course you can get PmWiki packaged into a shining cardboard box,
with CDs, manuals an all that, and make corporate clients happy :-)

I think that having a product released under two separate licenses is
more trouble than it is worth.

> The paid support will be available for both the commercial
> license and the GPL, although there may be different fee
> structures involved.  I'm still working out the details.

Good. But again, you don't need two separate licenses for that.

> Anyway, that's my current planning on things; I don't have
> a specific timeline for events but will keep everyone posted
> as things occur.  And as always, I'll be happy to answer
> questions and hear any opinions or suggestions (good or bad)
> about these plans.

There you are, my 2-cent :-)

Oh, and a possibly more rewarding route, and maybe also a more
appealing one to businesses, would be to provide PmWiki as a paid-per-use
service (with paid custom extensions, etc..), and collect monthly fees
from commercial clients. Not having to buy and manage software
starts to make its way in the MIS heads, as it greatly reduces
all the hassle connected with software asset management.


Carlo

-- 
Software Patents kill Innovation: say NO to Software Patents!
I Brevetti Software uccidono l'innovazione: di NO ai Brevetti Software!