Simon Phipps is correct: Open Core is Bad for You, the "you" here being you and me, end users: The open core model exploits open source and is a game on software freedom. The fact the game is played does not invalidate software freedom, but it suggests we need to revisit definitions and make the game harder to play.

A survey of 118 enterprise IT and development executives conducted by open source solution provider OpenLogic concludes that the "Open Core" model for open source licensing trails behind dual licensing and open source with commercial support, in terms of acceptability to the enterprise.

Spend any time in the open source community and you'll quickly run into the notion that all software should be free and open source, quite literally, to its core. That's a noble idea, but is it a practical -- or even wise -- approach for software developers to take? Jerry Carter, Director of Engineering for audit and authentication software vendor Likewise says no. Read on as he explains why:

When is an open source license not an open source license? The recent rush to "Open Core Licensing" as defined by Andrew Lampitt, the business development director of JasperSoft, raises many questions as to the meaning and purpose of free and open source software.

Matt Asay thinks (and has thought for some time) that the Macintosh is the best place to do open-source development. And he points out that he's not alone in this opinion. (And here's another post along the same lines.)

Apologists for the lock-in-prone "open core" model try to wrap themselves in the open source flag. Your business could suffer.

Last week, I wrote about the somewhat-vague definition of the open core business model, and how it compared to the dual-license business model. Open core, like dual licenses, are all part of the whole "ways-to-make-money-faster-with-open-source-software" genre of business, but they are not the same thing.

I've been criticized — quite a bit this week, but before that too — for using the term “Open Core” as a shortcut for the phrase “proprietary relicensing that harms software freedom”.

Core News Facts * GroundWork Open Source is sponsoring a competition amongst four popular open source mascots: “Tux” the Linux kernel penguin, “Beastie” the BSD daemon, Mozilla’s Firefox, and “The Gnu” GNU.