Business model and sponsored work

jonjbar · 2012-12-27 17:03:22

Hi,

I'm currently evaluating various options for a future rewrite of a big project and I'm really impressed with the quantity of work and dedication Arnaud Bouchez put in the mORMot framework, documentation, web-site and associated projects. Congratulation!
That being said, choosing a framework for a project not only implies making sure it is technically good, but also that is will be supported and enhanced in the long run. Being open source is obviously a great start but this is not a guarantee that this will be updated in the future (See some great TurboPower projects which are hardly maintained anymore). So I wonder what is the business model around the mORMot framework: Is there some paid support or product covering the development costs, or a company sponsoring the work on the framework or... ? OR is it a pure gift to the Delphi community out of Arnaud Bouchez' own time ?
Also, would you consider sponsored work should we need a custom feature/fix/advanced support in the future ?

Thank you for your time and great framework. I will be back on those forums as I'll spend time evaluating the framework

Best regards.

h.hasenack · 2012-12-28 22:25:00

I agree with jonjbar. We have currently invested quite much in our own project using Mormot, and we would hateto lose Ab's superb support and effort.

So... for our peace of mind it would be nice to know if we can rely in Mormot for, let';s say, the next 5 years...?

Regards - Hans

ab · 2012-12-29 18:04:53

Answering to this question is always the big point of any Open Source project.
Some answers are already available at http://synopse.info/forum/viewtopic.php?id=25
Just some thoughts and comments.

From the legal point of view, I'm the owner of the source code, and the permissive licenses are indeed an open door to any evolution.
Even forks are possible, if the tri-license scheme is followed.

Up to now, mORMot is used in some projects of my current employer, to let some big applications (millions LOC) evolve.
It is a major product, with worldwide customers, now involving Delphi, Java and .NET technologies. But the major part is Delphi, and we do not have the money to rewrite everything.
The framework units are used (communication, logging, DB access, PDF, services), therefore will be maintained in the next years.

Most of the work on mORMot is done on my free time, "as a pure gift to the Delphi community", as you wrote.
Even it is some kind of my "baby", I do not feel alone now.
Some contributions are amazing (my task is sometimes just to port the patches to the trunk, write the documentation and the tests), and feedback from users is really impressive.
Some features have been introduced to make the framework as generic as possible, even if I did not need such features.
This process makes me happy (and proud), and the more contributors, the better.
There is still room for improvement, and code refactoring sessions are made during each release phase.

Sponsored support is possible, via my one-man French company (named Synopse), which is a legal way of having invoice and tax number.
I've already done this, especially when a customer starts a new project involving mORMot, and wants to make an "audit" of the existing, and ensure the upcoming mORMot-based architecture matches the underneath business logic.
Any feature may be added in priority, with some sponsored work.

My only wish is that mORMot will evolve and become better with the years.
Any possibility to work on it at full time is my deepest desire.

But since I'm not alone any more, I suspect that few contributors able to fix framework code and add features (which is already the case, thanks to you), make mORMot a safe project.
It exists since years, and as soon as there is no money nor company behind it, but only hard work and Open Source dedication, it sounds like a safe invest.
In the Delphi community, mORMot is IMHO a very active project, and TurboPower history is quite diverse. OpenSourcing a project when the company is dead is very different from a pure FOSS solution.
I'm quite confident that with mORMot, your ROI is maximized.

jonjbar · 2012-12-30 13:14:50

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer. I think accepting sponsored work through your company is a great idea and provides additional points for the mORMot project when used for commercial usages.

h.hasenack · 2013-01-01 19:12:59

1

mORMot Open Source

#1 2012-12-27 17:03:22

Business model and sponsored work

#2 2012-12-28 22:25:00

Re: Business model and sponsored work

#3 2012-12-29 18:04:53

Re: Business model and sponsored work

#4 2012-12-30 13:14:50

Re: Business model and sponsored work

#5 2013-01-01 19:12:59

Re: Business model and sponsored work

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