[QGIS-Developer] Bug #21460?

Thu Apr 11 05:09:35 PDT 2019

Hi Casper
Le mer. 10 avr. 2019 à 10:29, Casper Børgesen <caboe at sdfe.dk> a écrit :

> What I have experienced is that I, as a frequent open source user in my
> line of work, have a difficult time convincing my boss to invest in
> something which is free (and thus inferior – not my opinion since I prefer
> the open source program).
>

Yeah, I think this is the rational behind what I think is the strongest
bottleneck of Open Source projects currently.
I think we should make an effort to kill the idea that QGIS does not cost
money. It is free yes, this allow you to start and scale GIS for anyone in
an organisation. However, we are witnessing a worlwide behavior change with
open source. Beyond all the billion dollar things with red hat, githb, IBM
and Microsoft, we see here big companies that totally changed their way to
use open source. They advocate that open source costs gain is not at all
the correct argument to choose open source. If you do so, you will kill
communities by asking much, making great savings and never give back. And
one day, the project will die and your projects with it. So those companies
are working to convince their teams to switch to a correct way of doing
open source, which could be summed up this way :

- understand the community first before starting a production project
- Always start with budgets roadmap for open source contribution. Justify
how much you will save at start, we scaling up if your project rocks, and
bargain to keep a fraction of it to contribute back (ie : fix, document,
improve, promote, translate). I f you don't do this at start, it will be a
lot harder to negociate something if your boss thinks it is free
- Go for a support contract, this helps you make your hierarchy understand
this is serious stuff, react fast, helps you explain them the open source
codes.  And it's best commercial solution we've found up to now to fit with
AGILE working. I don't know any serious Oracle 2 postgresql migration that
is not supported like this in fact.
- Advertise what you are doing publicly, and get in touch with "big serious
corps" to show QGIS is serious stuff.

In fact this is pretty much the same thing about data. I've always been
taught that any GIS project is expensive. But if you start any project by
evaluating costs and gains on the long run, you save a lot in the end.

I think we are in a moment where we must all try to make our boss spirit
change. Let's stop saying QGIS costs nothing. Let's share experiences
together to convince them this is serious. Let's calculate how much it
costs to workaround issues instead of solving them. Let's show them that
solving issues is often NOT expensive.

Let's keep up guys, the current moment we live is mostly a good one because
we are facing a huge success, and we are no more between us, hairy
convinced nerds.
We have millions of users, huge expectations, very few ressources. We all
have to spread the word beyong our technical social networks, take some
risks. And each time I tries to do that, surprisingly it works! Not
immediatly, but somes months or years after, a whole company suddenly
switches from the anti-open source camp to our side. Sometimes, one person
can't swich, be patient, do a work around, speak with others (above),
sometimes hire someone to spread a message you are not in a position to
spread yourself.

Regards

Le mer. 10 avr. 2019 à 10:29, Casper Børgesen <caboe at sdfe.dk> a écrit :

> Hi Andrea
>
>
>
> *"I did not pay for open source software, hence I won't pay for support or
> bug fixing (let alone use my super precious personal time to help the
> community in other ways)".*
>
>
>
> What I have experienced is that I, as a frequent open source user in my
> line of work, have a difficult time convincing my boss to invest in
> something which is free (and thus inferior – not my opinion since I prefer
> the open source program). Which means that while I agree with your
> “madness” in
>
>
>
> *“And this is where I get mad :-D”*,
>
>
>
> your “madness” hits me and not the ones refusing to throw a few coins at
> helping us all fix a couple of bugs. I guess it’s just another example of
> how the purse-keeper doesn’t feel the frustrations, just the moneyless J
>
>
>
> Regards, Casper
>
>
>
> *From:* QGIS-Developer <qgis-developer-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> *On
> Behalf Of *Andrea Aime
> *Sent:* 9. april 2019 20:00
> *To:* Jonathan Moules <jonathan-lists at lightpear.com>
> *Cc:* qgis-developer <qgis-developer at lists.osgeo.org>
> *Subject:* Re: [QGIS-Developer] Bug #21460?
>
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 9, 2019 at 7:00 PM Jonathan Moules <
> jonathan-lists at lightpear.com> wrote:
>
> Hi Andrea,
>
> As always, I agree with you, but one thing:
>
> > After all, the GPL license is really clear on the matter: "THE ENTIRE
> RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD
> THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY
> SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION"  Throwing one's frustration at the
> developers that shared code under the above conditions, while somehow
> understandable, really does not make sense and helps nobody.
>
> To be fair you get the exact same conditions if you throw six digit sums
> to the proprietary vendors too.
>
> Yes indeed, completely agree.
>
> I kind of see an unfortunate tendency to repetition in users, a sort of
> "continuity" if you like:
>
>    - "I pay for proprietary software, hence I'll pay for support and
>    fixing" (and agree that getting a fix is really hard, towards "mission
>    impossible" levels, with large vendors)
>    - "I did not pay for open source software, hence I won't pay for
>    support or bug fixing (let alone use my super-precious personal time to
>    help the community in other ways)". And this is where I get mad :-D
>
> Cheers
>
> Andrea
>
>
>
> ==
>
> GeoServer Professional Services from the experts! Visit
> http://goo.gl/it488V for more information. == Ing. Andrea Aime @geowolf
> Technical Lead GeoSolutions S.A.S. Via di Montramito 3/A 55054 Massarosa
> (LU) phone: +39 0584 962313 fax: +39 0584 1660272 mob: +39 339 8844549
> http://www.geo-solutions.it http://twitter.com/geosolutions_it
> ------------------------------------------------------- *Con riferimento
> alla normativa sul trattamento dei dati personali (Reg. UE 2016/679 -
> Regolamento generale sulla protezione dei dati “GDPR”), si precisa che ogni
> circostanza inerente alla presente email (il suo contenuto, gli eventuali
> allegati, etc.) è un dato la cui conoscenza è riservata al/i solo/i
> destinatario/i indicati dallo scrivente. Se il messaggio Le è giunto per
> errore, è tenuta/o a cancellarlo, ogni altra operazione è illecita. Le
> sarei comunque grato se potesse darmene notizia. This email is intended
> only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain
> information that is privileged, confidential or otherwise protected from
> disclosure. We remind that - as provided by European Regulation 2016/679
> “GDPR” - copying, dissemination or use of this e-mail or the information
> herein by anyone other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you
> have received this email by mistake, please notify us immediately by
> telephone or e-mail.*
> _______________________________________________
> QGIS-Developer mailing list
> QGIS-Developer at lists.osgeo.org
> List info: https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-developer
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-developer
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/qgis-developer/attachments/20190411/2b62b873/attachment-0001.html>