Redis modules and the Commons Clause [LWN.net]

Redis modules and the Commons Clause

Posted Aug 23, 2018 5:33 UTC (Thu) by pabs (subscriber, #43278)
Parent article: Redis modules and the Commons Clause

Some more coverage:

https://www.influxdata.com/blog/its-time-for-the-open-sou...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17822257

http://antirez.com/news/120

to post comments

Redis modules and the Commons Clause

Posted Aug 23, 2018 8:50 UTC (Thu) by nim-nim (subscriber, #34454) [Link]

Nothing surprising about influxdata, they went open core quite a long time ago, surrendering their market lead to actual free software alternatives (Prometheus).

Basically, they want the community, without surrendering control, and can't stand that anyone else can “take over” their project by funding a greater dev team (that's the real sticking point, not that they can't get funding, but that someone else may get more of it).

Redis modules and the Commons Clause

Posted Aug 25, 2018 3:01 UTC (Sat) by pabs (subscriber, #43278) [Link]

Redis modules and the Commons Clause

Posted Sep 2, 2018 6:33 UTC (Sun) by pabs (subscriber, #43278) [Link] (3 responses)

Another followup on the economics of open source:

https://medium.com/@mattklein123/the-broken-economics-of-...

Redis modules and the Commons Clause

Posted Sep 2, 2018 19:02 UTC (Sun) by cladisch (✭ supporter ✭, #50193) [Link] (2 responses)

> https://medium.com/@mattklein123/the-broken-economics-of-...

He argues from a venture capitalist point of view, which is, frankly, not very relevant for anybody else.
The most telling sentence:
> If we take consulting, services, and support off the table as an option for high-growth revenue generation (the only thing VCs care about), we are left with open core, SaaS, or some blurring of the two.

Yup, those off-the-table methods are how you do generate revenue from OSS.

Redis modules and the Commons Clause

Posted Sep 2, 2018 20:09 UTC (Sun) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (1 responses)

> He argues from a venture capitalist point of view, which is, frankly, not very relevant for anybody else.
Why is that? For individuals or small companies another option might exist - paid support, but this is really a thin gruel. It's unlikely you can grow your company just with that.

And for individuals perhaps Patreon or similar services might provide just enough money to be able to eat.

Redis modules and the Commons Clause

Posted Sep 3, 2018 6:30 UTC (Mon) by cladisch (✭ supporter ✭, #50193) [Link]

VCs specialize on high-growth startups. Not everything is a high-growth/high-risk/take-over-the-world enterprise, and other forms of private equity or debt exist.

In other words: it is in a VC's interest to change an (Open-Source) company into a high-growth one, but not necessarily in the company's interest.

Redis modules and the Commons Clause

Posted Sep 2, 2018 6:35 UTC (Sun) by pabs (subscriber, #43278) [Link]

Also Nadia Eghbal has been posting on these issues for a while:

https://nadiaeghbal.com/

Redis modules and the Commons Clause

Posted Sep 11, 2018 2:23 UTC (Tue) by pabs (subscriber, #43278) [Link]

"The Commons Clause doesn't help the commons"
https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/51177.html