Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by presentation 1665 days ago
Agree, the way it’s presented will pretty much guarantee nobody but hardcore nerds will ever use it, it’s sad that noble efforts hobble themselves in this way.

I mean isn’t it ironic that PeerTube doesn’t use a PeerTube video to introduce its new features? Guess their team thinks their own product isn’t a good way of consuming interesting information…

3 comments

It'd certainly be nice (although an oxymoron) if Framasoft could singlehandedly create a deep decentralised network of video content creators to challenge YouTube. But that isn't really necessary - if all they do is bring down the cost of someone else to compete then that is more than enough to be helpful.

And while I do agree that a savvy marketer would have had a video in the article ... a video is actually a bad medium for communicating a new release. Videos are better for stuff with a bit of visual spectacle.

Does the license allow commercial use without releasing any modifications? Else it doesn't make sense for a potential competitor to provide improvements to create additional competitors for themselves.
I think you are still under the impression that success is still based on codebase and you just need the perfect source code to build the most successful service. That's wrong. Success is built on relentless labor, continuous marketing and luck. That's why Gitlab can build a successful company while dailymotion can fail to build what is functionally not new.
I think you're lacking enough data points to determine what impression I'm under, making assumptions as to my perspective, where my question is coming from.

There is a competitive advantage to not giving your future competition a heads up by providing them your keys to the foundation of your Kingdom. Sure, they'll copy what you do eventually if what you're doing is working, but why make that easier for them?

If someone is seriously going to take on the current systems and sees value in part or all of PeerTube then it's not a substantial part of the cost, because as you say, it's not the codebase that's important - though it becomes a conversation piece if it means any additions to the codebase reduces an even temporary competitive advantage from potential future competitors.

PeerTube itself is licenced under the AGPL.

But that wouldn't stop a non-AGPL licenced solution from interoperating as the network is based on an open standard (ActivityPub).

So the site is about a server you can run that will be your very own tube site. Who other than nerds is going to install that? It requires administration, you're going to be very interested in running an instance to the point of commitment before you go there.
Great idea and totally agree. Even someone who has been de-googling for awhile cannot step away from YT and PeerTube just isn't the same thing at all.