PyMol, o dell'open source che guadagna
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Car Auctions In The Tri State Area
regard to open source software, one often wonders why 'people put their hard work in partnership with gli altri senza venderlo a caro prezzo. In verita' con l'open source si puo' guadagnare, solo in maniera diversa dal solito. Maniera che secondo me e' di gran lunga migliore a quella tradizionale del "fatto un software, vendo il software". Certo non ha l'impatto economico su chi produce pari a quello di microsoft, ma la speranza e' che il mercato riconosca il valore di tali imprese e che quindi le possa premiare anche economicamente.Ho un bell'esempio, appena trovato in rete, di cui mi sento di fare un po' di pubblicita': PyMOL
e' un sistema, basato su Python, per disegnare accuratamente in 3D molecole complesse. Sembra essere uno strumento molto potente, e quello che mi ha colpito e' che e' ormai usato often on the covers of magazines such as Nature and Science, whose standards, in terms of graphics, are high. The company that produced and maintains the DeLano Scientific, says that a quarter of biological images in literature are produced by their software (examples around).
It 's a small company, who can' afford only a fixed salary and perhaps two in a moment. They give the software for free, and the source code and 'available. In pymon and Debian 'etch in a standard package that you can' easily download aptitude. You can 'change and ridistribure but to quote the parent company. The money for them come from voluntary donations escvlusivamente users. But not only in gratitude, that they would not survive easily. Users "paying" special purchase rights for specific support, and have the latest updates already 'completed (provided the source is always open to be able to compile, but not everyone knows it). But above all, may request to develop this or that function in the original software and 'missing, paying for the service to other programs. In this way they have a "control" over where the software will go 'to improve in the near future, asking for corrections or new features'.
The advantage for users and 'obvious, as they say in the introduction of their software, 
"Because of PyMOL's unusual status [open source], you can be confident That the time you invest today in the learning package Will Provide you with long term utility no matter where our career Takes happens to you. " No license means freedom must be paid 'to use it anytime, anywhere. And if the active interaction with users (which show the way for new developments) really will improve 'the product as expected (and indeed it is doing), this will want to 'say that the software can' seriously become an industry standard. So money coming into the coffers of the parent company that will continue 'with its paid services. Finding a new way to make money and sustainable 'need.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment