[sldev] Re: Proprietary dependencies [2] (Re: Compile as installer)

[Jason Giglio]

Rob Lanphier wrote:
  > If you were telling them there was no way for them to legally 
distribute
> a client you develop for them, you didn't give them the whole story.  
> You probably should have told them "you will need to get a license from 
> Linden Lab to distribute the client".  That's a very different thing.
> 

I tell them that.  Their next question is "how much does this cost"? 
And I tell them that it's unknown, but probably significant (five 
figures).   I tell them that Linden Lab won't even tell me a price 
unless I seriously expect to buy one.  They stop calling back.

> That said, I agree that there's a cost-benefit analysis, but I don't see 
> it as simple.  First you'd need to quantify the development, and then 
> the value of that development to us and to residents as a whole.  It's 
> not entirely clear that the delta in 2007 was so large that we missed 
> out on that much, especially given the fact that early on, we weren't 
> particularly well equipped to deal with a large influx of contribution.
> 

And you are now?  http://www.sljirastats.com/generated/open_patches.png

You can't quantify what you are missing out on here.  Cost isn't just 
the cost of doing something, it's the cost of not doing it too.

I can give you one data point, myself.  All I know is that I'd be doing 
a whole lot more open source client development if it were not set up in 
a way that makes it entirely unprofitable and unsustainable.

> At a gut level, I'd much prefer to get rid of proprietary dependencies.  
> If nothing else, it makes my job easier, but I also philosophically 
> prefer that we remove them sooner rather than later.  I just don't feel 
> like I yet have a watertight business and community case to make that we 
> should perhaps take steps backwards in features and functionality in 
> order to get rid of those dependencies.

It only requires a commitment to making the open source alternative 
excellent.  Right now the two major problems are KDU and Fmod.  The 
community has put you most of the way to replacing those, and Linden Lab 
has not really done anything to demonstrate a commitment to even using 
the work the community has done.

-Jason