[bhousel]

This article is somewhat blogospam.

But it does raise a point that I wanted to mention. In many cases (and Windsoc is such a case) when you are trying to sell to developers, your competition isn't the developer's wish to "do it myself". Your actual competition is the plethora of open source tools that already do the thing that you're trying to sell.

Software development has changed, and those vendors trying to build a business selling libraries and toolkits are going to find it difficult to stay relevant.

Protip: If a search on http://ruby-toolbox.com/ turns up half a dozen gems that do the same thing that you're trying to sell, well, you're doing it wrong.

[wolfrom]

I think there are important differences between libraries and platforms.

1. Libraries are static, with versioning and upgrades, whereas platforms are real-time.

2. Libraries are based on a one-time usage, whereas platforms depend on providing constant value to maintain users.

3. Libraries do not generally offload any work to other servers, whereas platforms can provide efficiencies.

4. Libraries are platform, language, and version specific, whereas platforms can be built through protocols like REST and JSON that are known to most stacks.

That being said, open source libraries aren't always free when it comes to support and technical costs, and not all platforms are closed-source.

[bhousel]

That being said, open source libraries aren't always free when it comes to support and technical costs..

While it's true that you can't always compare open source support with vendor support, I definitely feel the tide turning on this one. In the past 2 years or so (and this is just my experience, YMMV) I've found it much easier to get changes made from a project maintainer, than from most software vendors.

Github has changed this drastically. I can fork projects, fix things myself, send pull request back to the project maintainer all in less time than it usually takes for a traditional software vendor to even put my support request in the queue and acknowledge the problem.

I'm just saying, things are changing. Your business will have to change too if you want to sell to developers. You can't keep repeating the same aphorisms about support and technical costs.

[wolfrom]

That's a good point. We're trying to disrupt the existing API platform market by being leaner and faster. Putting some Windsoc code on Github hasn't been ruled out, either. I think that assuming that for-profit vendors would never consider supporting and leveraging the open source movement would be just as dangerous as an assumption about open source being unreliable.

[pdx]

Downvoted for the use of the term "protip". The arrogance conveyed in that single word drives my heartrate up 20%.

[haploid]

Downvoted for downvoting a comment that merely strikes a personal, subjective pet peeve.

The comment added to the discussion, and the "protip" in question was a good point.

Last I checked, karma is to be given/taken due to quality of content, not whether or not it hurts your precious feelings.

[gobongo]

Protip: chillax, dude.