News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:WiX Toolset: Introduce the Open Source Maintenance Fee by threemux on Friday July 25, 2025 @03:38PM (#44687423)
Honest question: how would you know if companies stopped using the product as a result of this change? Presumably the only ones you'd hear from are ones that managed to get through the process far enough to complain about procurement (which is definitely another issue, pretty sure GitHub Sponsors doesn't do net 60...)
Re:WiX Toolset: Introduce the Open Source Maintenance Fee by AndyNemmity on Friday July 25, 2025 @06:44PM (#44689369)
right, we wouldn't mention it at all. no way legal would approve it, so we'd just move to something else.
Re:WiX Toolset: Introduce the Open Source Maintenance Fee by robmensching on Monday July 28, 2025 @03:11PM (#44714313)
Legal in many companies of different sizes, from Microsoft to tiny ones, have all evaluated and approved of the OSMF EULA. Now, it's fine if someone says I don't want to deal with the EULA. But, in that case, my project didn't mean that much to them in the first place.

I'm listening to concerns and adapting. As noted above, so far, it's gone very well.

Re:WiX Toolset: Introduce the Open Source Maintenance Fee by AndyNemmity on Sunday August 03, 2025 @01:26AM (#44774271)
I'm not criticizing, mostly complaining about how poorly legal teams still perform in this capacity
Re:WiX Toolset: Introduce the Open Source Maintenance Fee by robmensching on Sunday August 03, 2025 @05:29PM (#44779996)
I hear you. This feels very similar to the early days of OSS licenses. They were terrible and scary until a few big companies finally came out and said OSS licenses weren't (all) terrible or scary. Then accepting OSS licenses became a norm. I'm hoping the OSMF or something like it can change the norm for Open Source sustainability.

I'm not saying it'll happen, but many people told me Microsoft would never accept Open Source, and I proved them wrong. :)

Re:WiX Toolset: Introduce the Open Source Maintenance Fee by AndyNemmity on Monday August 04, 2025 @07:55PM (#44792738)
I hope you continue to prove them wrong. It takes people taking a stand to do that, I admire that.
Re:WiX Toolset: Introduce the Open Source Maintenance Fee by robmensching on Monday July 28, 2025 @03:07PM (#44714236)
Oh, I (would and do) expect we'll see our download numbers (nuget.org and GitHub both track those) decrease. Or maybe consumers will choose to stay on a version before the OSMF was introduced longer. So, we'll kinda' be able to tell.

Simplifying the payment process for procurement is my focus in OSMF (after I get some work done at my day job) to minimize any friction.