Comment of the Day - February 9, 2006 - You Misunderstand Pieces of Our License

I think you're misunderstanding pieces of our license. Sure, it prohibits you from developing another ERP system while you're a licensee of OpenMFG. But it's hardly the case that you couldn't do so "ever in your lifetime." Only while you're actively in business with us - I think that's reasonable.

And we do try to go out of our way to let people know we understand the difference between FOSS and what we do.

Both the EULA and the VAR/SI partner agreement provide for full source code, and the ability for enhancements to come back into the mainline supported product. If you're a VAR, it's a ticket to ongoing customer-paid development work (as well as support and other services), and you've got the vendor standing behind you after the code goes live. Unlike "pure" open source, also, there is a commissionable license fee - so that's additional money in the VAR's pocket.

We think it's a good model for ERP, which is by its nature heavy on customization and services. If you'd like to take a look for yourself, we make a fully functional demo client available for download (Linux, Windows, or Mac OS X client), at [HYPERLINK@www.openmfg.com.]

Cheers,



Ned Lilly
President/CEO, OpenMFG