Stack Exchange
log in sign up chat discuss faq users badges

Area 51 » Professional

definition commitment beta
215
followers

Open Source

Launched Q&A site for people organizing, marketing or licensing open source development projects.

13
votes
2
answers

Expand name to include both Free Software and Open Source?

aug 5 '15 at 7:51 Free Radical 382
12
votes
3
answers

Should Free Software get a mention in the site description?

aug 5 '15 at 0:53 Community♦ 1
1
vote
1
answer

A reputation based open source collaboration platform

jun 19 '15 at 12:06 Community♦ 1
9
votes
3
answers

Do we want to focus on just Programming projects?

mar 31 '15 at 11:17 Pierre.Vriens 244
6
votes
3
answers

What coding topics will this site address?

mar 17 '15 at 17:54 kdopen 224

show 4 more discussions
discuss this proposal

63 Example Questions (5 closed)

active newest votes
up vote 18 down vote
What's the difference between the MIT and the BSD license?
added by Philipp Jan 19 '15 at 12:20
link
up vote 15 down vote
How can an open source project be monetized?
added by Philipp Jan 20 '15 at 8:33
link
5  
The question was marked for close unfairly, this question is 100% ontopic. – peterh Jan 24 '15 at 13:31
10  
Agreed: I think the list of answers to this question is well-known and finitely long; it is not overly broad and should not be closed, in my opinion. Maybe it would be better phrased as "What are the general strategies for monetizing my open source project?" – apsillers Jan 26 '15 at 23:44
with 18 upvotes, 2 downvotes, 5 close votes and one reopen vote, this question obviously is a tricky one. I see why one would say that this question is rather broad. If we make it to the beta phase we're going to get this question regardless of whether we want it or not. And as @aspillers has said, it's not a very difficult question to answer. So I would suggest we pose and answer this question in the private beta phase. (perhaps even as a community wiki). I'll vote reopen for now, I'm sure this question will get discussed on our meta at some point. – overactor Mar 8 '15 at 6:56
up vote 14 down vote
How can I attract designers / UX people to contribute to my project?
added by PeeHaa Jan 19 '15 at 10:35
link
1  
This feels off-topic. It's easily expandable to any project, open-source or not. Sure, there might be a couple more things to worry about, but it feels off to me. – QPaysTaxes Jan 23 '15 at 2:24
3  
@QPaysTaxes Not really. The issues of motivation are very different between work-for-hire ventures versus more purpose-driven motives. "How do I find developers for ProjectLibre" verus "How do I find developers for Microsoft Project"... very different answers. – Robert Cartaino Jan 23 '15 at 15:31
up vote 14 down vote
What steps are needed to change the license of the project?
added by ratchet freak Jan 20 '15 at 9:59
link
up vote 14 down vote
What is a contributor license agreement?
added by ratchet freak Jan 21 '15 at 19:41
link
up vote 13 down vote
How can I start an open source project and keep people from taking it and selling it? I want to keep it free, open and never be sold.
added by James Jenkins Jan 20 '15 at 14:53
link
up vote 12 down vote
How do I deal with (enthusiastic) contributors who damage more than they help?
added by overactor Jan 19 '15 at 9:59
link
1  
how do you quantify that? sounds entirely relative and subjective and very, very, easy to abuse. – albert Jan 28 '15 at 19:42
1  
@albert I'm afraid I don't comprehend why this would be easy to abuse? Sure the premise of the question relies on something subjective, but that's the askers problem. Answers to this question would assume that the asker is correct. unless of course the body of the question strongly suggests otherwise, in which case it would be a bad question. – overactor Jan 29 '15 at 10:43
1  
the asker can never be correct in this question. you can't quantify it. this way is so broad and vague anything can be construed as bad. if you want an answer in that sense, try to turn that person's enthusiasm into something productive. – albert Jan 29 '15 at 14:07
That's already on-topic on Programmers. – Martin Schröder Feb 13 '15 at 16:29
up vote 11 down vote
There seem to be a few different "BSD licences". Which are they, and what are the differences?
added by Carpetsmoker Jan 22 '15 at 12:12
link
up vote 11 down vote
Can I use open source licenses for works other than software (such as weblog posts, graphic art, etc.)?
added by Carpetsmoker Jan 22 '15 at 12:14
link
Eh, does this question really stand as a real question as is? AFAIK, the Apache Software License clearly has the word "software" in it, defining its scope, and so does GPL, as defined in its preamble: "The GNU General Public License is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of works." I guess answers would likely be to "RTFM", which isn't optimistic here. – Unihedron Jan 24 '15 at 7:22
1  
@Unihedron, just because the answer is rather simple, doesn't mean it's not a good fit. I can see it working as a question. – overactor Jan 24 '15 at 9:00
I'm out of votes at the moment, @Unihedron, but I agree with @overactor - this is a great question (and there are licenses for just this type of thing out there (or you could write your own)) – warren Jan 27 '15 at 15:05
@Unihedron Well, the Apache license is just one ;-) Perhaps the question could be phrased better, but what I want to ask is more like 'what license can I use for non-software things?' (I thought that would be too broad); I don't like the CC licenses for being too complicated and like the brevity of for example the MIT license... Also, what about software programs that contain art resources (logos etc)? – Carpetsmoker Feb 2 '15 at 14:24
@Unihedron you'd be surprised at the number of people who slap software licenses on non-software things! – congusbongus Mar 2 '15 at 23:56
up vote 10 down vote
What will attract people to use my open source text editor over similar proprietary products?
added by overactor Jan 19 '15 at 10:03
link
2  
I think, you are unfairly serial downvoted here, so you got all of my protest upvotes now. – peterh Jan 24 '15 at 13:26
2  
this is a marketing question - which would apply to any piece of software, open or closed – warren Jan 27 '15 at 15:06
2  
@warren, I feel like marketing an open source product (and company) is different from marketing in general, it seems not everyone agree though. Maybe the question could be reworded? – overactor Jan 27 '15 at 15:33
1  
I originally downvoted this, but now upvoted it. I wanted to add an example question that's very similar: "I've spent a lot of time making an open source project that's better than many similair projects (IMHO), but almost no one seems to be using it; how can I attract some attention to my project?" ... Especially the wording of 'convince people' are off-putting to me... but perhaps my suggested phrasing can help you making this question better :-) – Carpetsmoker Feb 19 '15 at 23:16
1  
@Carpetsmoker - based on the question edits, I agree it should be reopened – warren Feb 20 '15 at 16:44
show 1 more improvement suggestion
up vote 10 down vote
What's the difference between bazaar-style and cathedral-style open source projects?
added by Philipp Jan 20 '15 at 8:32
link
up vote 10 down vote
Can I sell in-house modified GPL software?
added by peterh Jan 20 '15 at 11:59
link
up vote 10 down vote
As I know, OSX (which is closed source) is based on the opensource FreeBSD. How can it be possible?
added by peterh Jan 20 '15 at 12:00
link
up vote 10 down vote
What are the main differences between GPL and LGPL?
added by peterh Jan 20 '15 at 12:02
link
up vote 10 down vote
Can I develop closed source software with opensource development environment?
added by peterh Jan 20 '15 at 12:02
link
up vote 10 down vote
What sort of licence best suits my piece of open source hardware?
added by Thijser Jan 20 '15 at 14:23
link
Think open source devices such as the arduino – Thijser Jan 20 '15 at 14:23
up vote 10 down vote
Other than by selling advertising or sponsorship, how can money be made on open-source projects which do not lend themselves to providing services?
added by warren Jan 20 '15 at 14:42
link
@PeterHorvath - how would you improve it? – warren Jan 27 '15 at 15:01
I removed my downvote, but my close I can't. Somehow it is too long and hard to interpret, but imho it is soon ontopic. – peterh Jan 30 '15 at 23:23
up vote 10 down vote
When launching a new open source project, should I have elevated roles in place, or should I plan on defining and creating them as needed?
added by James Jenkins, edited by Philipp Jan 22 '15 at 16:39
link
2  
What do you mean with "elevated roles"? – Carpetsmoker Feb 23 '15 at 0:08
2  
@carpet I think he means moderators on the forum/IRC and people with commit access for the repo – ratchet freak Feb 24 '15 at 23:59
@ratchet correct. – James Jenkins Feb 25 '15 at 1:13
up vote 10 down vote
What license will allow everyone to use my code with whatever license they please but require them to notify me of any changes they make?
added by overactor Jan 21 '15 at 7:11
link
up vote 10 down vote
Do I really need the long "shouting" warranty disclaimer in all-caps that some licenses, such as MIT, have? Or can I trim/lowercase it?
added by Carpetsmoker Jan 22 '15 at 12:13
link
up vote 10 down vote
When open sourcing applications, what do you do w/DB connection strings & other sensitive information?
added by massonpj, edited by Robert Cartaino Jan 23 '15 at 16:37
link
up vote 10 down vote
For my project that targets [advanced users | user type], should I enforce coding standards and unit testing if it complicates collaboration?
added by Unihedron Jan 24 '15 at 7:17
link
7  
How does the skill level of your users affect your development standard? Are you maybe referring to the skill level of your contributors? – Philipp Jan 26 '15 at 0:20
@Philipp: The audience target provides context of what the project is for and how much customization or technical requirements are required for using the published products of the project, which hints of the scale of it (to be really big). The essence of this question is "if it complicates collaboration" though - I've seen projects abandoning standards and automated tests just because it was harder for them to keep up with each other, hence this question. – Unihedron Jan 31 '15 at 8:27
up vote 10 down vote
Can I combine [Licence A] with [Licence B] in one project? (Dual licensing) And what consequences can this have.
added by overactor Jan 29 '15 at 7:16
link
Obviously, more specific information would be needed in the body of the question. If anyone can think of information that should go in the title, let me know. – overactor Jan 29 '15 at 7:18
I think you should explicitly name the licenses. So would it be really to broad, and warren will have right. – peterh Jan 30 '15 at 23:19
This question is currently ambiguous - It can either refer to "Dual licensing my project with A and B" - which is an orthographic concept, you can license a project under as many ways you want, or "Sublicensing" - which is specific to terms of each licenses and is generally a bad idea because it generally stops protecting you. – Unihedron Jan 31 '15 at 8:31
up vote 10 down vote
Can I use a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike image to illustrate my GFDL user manual?
added by Mark Feb 11 '15 at 2:06
link
1  
I think this is an excellent question and would definitely upvote if I hadn't used my 5 votes yet. – overactor Feb 11 '15 at 7:15
up vote 10 down vote
Are there any problems with creating an open source video game where the game software is GPLv3 and all the game content is CC-BY-SA 4.0?
added by Philipp Feb 16 '15 at 0:47
link
up vote 10 down vote
Which parts of Google Android are not open source?
added by Philipp Feb 16 '15 at 0:50
link
up vote 10 down vote
Where is a good place to get people to work on a project collaboratively?
added by delete Feb 18 '15 at 0:05
link
When I asked this question, I wasn't sure how to phrase the title. Hopefully you get my meaning though. – delete Mar 11 '15 at 2:13
up vote 10 down vote
What are some good alternatives to GitHub for hosting open source projects?
added by delete Feb 18 '15 at 0:06
link
2  
should be posted on softwarerecs.stackexchange.com – Aquarius_Girl Mar 9 '15 at 0:44
1  
I think it could be posted on either or. – delete Mar 9 '15 at 0:53
1  
This is another question to discuss about on meta it seems. It's not the best question (it is rather listy). But it is somewhat on-topic and is likely to be asked. – overactor Mar 10 '15 at 6:04
While GitHub is mainly used for open source, you can host private repos. So, while it fits here, I'd lean towards Software Recs. +1 regardless – Cole Johnson Mar 18 '15 at 15:33
up vote 10 down vote
How do I license an Open Source project that uses libraries with one or more different licenses to the one I plan to use?
added by Matthew Brown Feb 27 '15 at 21:59
link
4  
Answering this question would require to know the licenses of the libraries and the license you want to license the project under, but I assume you would post these in the question body. – Philipp Mar 2 '15 at 15:11
Absolutely. For now imagine that the questions details a bunch of MIT, Apache, CC and GNU projects – Matthew Brown Mar 3 '15 at 11:38
up vote 10 down vote
I've been told that I should not use some format because it's patented (gif, mp3, h264). But I'm not a U.S. citizen; do these patents apply globally?
added by Carpetsmoker Mar 1 '15 at 7:24
link
Isn't this more a question dealing with law? – Cole Johnson Mar 18 '15 at 15:39
@Cole Yeah, it deals with law ... But also open source I think? – Carpetsmoker Mar 18 '15 at 15:40
up vote 10 down vote
Why would one dual-license a project under GPL and MIT license?
added by user4098326 Mar 7 '15 at 8:09
link
up vote 10 down vote
What are the benefits of granting ownership of my open source project to a foundation, and which foundations are best for which purposes?
added by Greg Chase Mar 7 '15 at 11:29
link
Perhaps this should be two different questions? – kdopen Mar 17 '15 at 17:32
Open to the idea. – Greg Chase Mar 18 '15 at 0:02
up vote 10 down vote
Why do many installers for open source software make the user agree to the licence when the licences are concerned only with distribution, not use?
added by curiousdannii Mar 8 '15 at 0:10
link
up vote 10 down vote
Do I really need to include a licence file for common licences like GPL or MIT in my source code distributions when the texts can be found everywhere?
added by curiousdannii Mar 8 '15 at 0:12
link
up vote 9 down vote
My company is open-sourcing part of a product with the [Apache 2.0] license. How do we ensure we won't violate license terms in future development?
added by warren Jan 20 '15 at 14:17
link
1  
@PeterHorvath - this is a general question, with the specific example in brackets to indicate what a specific form may look like. See a similar example here. Specific examples are precisely what such a proposed site will need :) – warren Jan 26 '15 at 14:31
I think, overreactors example questions are too broad, while yours are too localized. But down removed. – peterh Jan 30 '15 at 23:26
up vote 9 down vote
There is an open source product with a Creative Commons license, can I make copies and sell it?
added by James Jenkins Jan 20 '15 at 14:51
link
6  
Clarify, in the actual question the specific type of CC license would need to be identified. – James Jenkins Jan 20 '15 at 14:51
up vote 9 down vote
Can I distribute GPL software and place the code behind a paywall?
added by manu Jan 28 '15 at 21:21
link
up vote 9 down vote
How can I ensure other contributors can join the effort easily?
added by ratchet freak Feb 10 '15 at 19:13
link
up vote 8 down vote
I heard about that some companies provide free code-signing certificates for OpenSouce projects. Is this true? if yes, which companies are?
added by DiogoSaraiva Feb 24 '15 at 11:14
link
up vote 8 down vote
What legal pitfalls do I need to be aware of when selling Open Source implementations as a service?
added by 7ochem Feb 27 '15 at 16:34
link
1 2 next

This site has

Launched!

This Stack Exchange site's beta was successful, so it launched 5 months ago.

proposed by

overactor
19.2k●11●98●236

7 years ago

edited by

Robert Cartaino ♦ 3
230k●71●656●1454

7 years ago

viewed

25,250 times

latest activity

6 years ago

followers

users also following

10.7% Hardware Recommen...
9.3% Computer Graphics
9.3% Latin Language
8.4% 3D Printing
13.5% only this proposal

followers active in

75.8% Stack Overflow
33.0% Meta Stack Exchange
27.9% Super User
25.6% Ask Ubuntu
21.9% Open Source
21.4% Software Engineering

recent followers

added Jul 1 '15 at 5:10
hildred
23.4k●30●177●428
added Jun 16 '15 at 13:56
Silje Ljosland Bakke
1,288●1●6●27
added Jun 16 '15 at 8:08
Aritra
1,045●7●15
added Jun 14 '15 at 3:09
Gaete
79●5
added Jun 12 '15 at 16:22
balki
33.1k●39●163●279
added Jun 12 '15 at 13:53
Zerotoinfinite
8,847●39●161●302
added Jun 10 '15 at 8:42
Swinders
3,676●7●52●95
added Jun 6 '15 at 15:38
pabouk
20.9k●13●187●350
added Jun 5 '15 at 15:18
Mnementh
86.7k●71●395●724
added Jun 2 '15 at 16:42
Dan Cornilescu
49.4k●15●104●201
added Jun 1 '15 at 23:37
localhost
528●1●3●16
added May 31 '15 at 22:28
Alejandro
8,161●7●49●92
added May 24 '15 at 19:43
hultqvist
18.6k●16●79●155
added May 19 '15 at 12:06
user136440
51●1
added May 14 '15 at 0:57
novice
990●1●9●25
added May 9 '15 at 10:39
Osham
51●1
added May 8 '15 at 23:01
Nerrolken
58.4k●31●262●497
added May 4 '15 at 20:26
toothbrush
6,036●1●44●83
added May 3 '15 at 1:19
Eliah Kagan
132k●63●417●686
added Apr 21 '15 at 19:33
Zizouz212
25.1k●11●147●403
added Apr 17 '15 at 12:58
Michał Politowski
6,731●3●54●94
added Apr 13 '15 at 11:58
NightOwlPrgmr
1,423●3●23●32
added Apr 7 '15 at 2:14
axblount
5,867●2●40●54
added Apr 6 '15 at 14:55
unarist
17.1k●4●48●125
added Apr 1 '15 at 16:22
DaGhostman Dimitrov
4,508●1●42●97
added Mar 27 '15 at 11:47
Josiah
8,207●6●60●127
added Mar 18 '15 at 15:31
Cole Johnson
22.5k●25●141●304
added Mar 18 '15 at 9:23
Ranveer
12.4k●14●89●219
added Mar 18 '15 at 0:52
ArcadeMaster
46●5
added Mar 17 '15 at 15:30
demood
51●1
added Mar 17 '15 at 15:23
kdopen
16.4k●10●73●159
added Mar 17 '15 at 15:06
ktravers
492●7●20
added Mar 16 '15 at 13:43
cybermonkey
12.3k●25●135●311
added Mar 16 '15 at 6:24
skroczek
2,401●2●14●24
added Mar 16 '15 at 2:56
elkos
487●2●5
added Mar 15 '15 at 19:23
ʇolɐǝz ǝɥʇ qoq
9,858●14●94●220
added Mar 15 '15 at 9:07
CodesInChaos
163k●36●440●661
added Mar 14 '15 at 8:32
michaelcoyote
51●2
added Mar 13 '15 at 15:27
apeirogon
1,896●12●47
added Mar 13 '15 at 14:09
Madhur
116●5
feed icon proposal feed
faq | blog | legal | privacy policy | contact us | feedback always welcome
site design / logo © 2022 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under cc by-sa; see the licensing help page for more information.
rev 2022.3.23.593