News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Ask HN: Why don't companies open-source the source code of their old products?.

Re:Ask HN: Why don't companies open-source the source code o... by djt on Sunday July 07, 2013 @09:44AM (#6001987)
-legal problems (licensing, liability)

-proprietary technology (ie Google Reader hooks into Google backend extensively)

- Cost of getting it ready for open source (usually a large sunk cost already)

- They may still make money out of it in the future (ie selling old games with emulation)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Why don't companies open-source the source code o... by djt on Sunday July 07, 2013 @09:46AM (#6001993)
Also, for individuals there is a lot of positives in that prospective employers can see their work. From a company there may be way less incentives.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: Why don't companies open-source the source code o... by f902370 on Sunday July 07, 2013 @09:55AM (#6002015)
I wish Google could treate Google Reader the way they treated Google Wave.
[ Parent | on HN ]