openerp-community team mailing list archive

[Raphael Valyi <rvalyi@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 6:21 PM, Kurt Haselwimmer <kurt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> [...]
>
> Maybe I am missing something, but if I am it means it has not been
> sufficiently signposted, as, for example, I have spent hours on the openERP
> website trying to figure out if there is a way to attach simple courier
> tracking information to a sales order once it has been despatched. As a
> comparison - it took me a total of 5 minutes and $25 to find and buy such a
> module (
> http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=extension/extension/info&extension_id=2389)
> for opencart, plus a further 10 minutes to install it.
>
> Kurt
>


Hello Kurt,

Well, for sure, you make a point about Launchpad and the lack of developer
communication about the website module before it was announced.

But, as for your Opencart example, it's really related to the business
model and to the license.
How much does it cost to develop such a Opencart shipping module? Probably
not 25 USD. May be 5 000 USD or more...
That is if I'm assured by the licensing that I can sell 200 of them, I
raise the money and do the upfront development and create such a module and
the sell it.
This is the logic in an "open core" model such as Opencart or Magento. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_core

But with Linux which is GPL or with OpenERP which is AGPL, this is
impossible: because the license allows the first customer to republish the
module under the AGPL license. It probably even goes in his own interest to
publish the module and get other people maintaining it instead of depending
on a unique IT supplier.
So potentially you'll sell it only once or twice!
If it still cost 5 000 USD to develop but brings you less than 100 USD from
selling it, it's not really a good deal for the software editor, right?

Then you understand better there are fundamental differences between open
core and copyleft licensing business model such as Linux or OpenERP.
In the later model, indeed, conquering a new feature will cost more money
to the 1st one who will need it. But then it's free for everybody else and
as it's open source, it tends to consolidate to something sustainable
instead of say a Magento module.

Now of course this is a caricature, some companies, even OpenERP SA still
do upfront investment because they bet that it allows them to achieve a
good market position to then sell their related services. But in any case
it's still a very different economics than the Open core model. Is it' a
bad model? Well when you look at where Linux is today and even OpenERP, I'm
convinced it's really not a bad model, even if it may take more time to
reach maturity.

A bad side effect is that documentation tend to be scarce because nobody is
incentivated to do it because software editors in fact make a living
selling implementation and maintenance services to fund theses
developments, so not justifying, just explaining, this is one of the reason
documentation tends to be poor. If module editor or OpenERP SA would make
it from selling the code, the documentation would certainly be better. As
OpenERP is now selling a SaaS plateform, you can however expect a business
model shift with better documentation about the core.

I feel these business economics could be better explained because newcomers
are really confused about this and loose time until they get it.

-- 
Raphaël Valyi
Founder and consultant
http://twitter.com/rvalyi <http://twitter.com/#!/rvalyi>
+55 21 2516 2954
www.akretion.com