Top all-time · #2853
VM Brasseur
Personal blog · anonymoushash.vmbrasseur.combusinesscareerprogramming
VM Brasseur writes {anonymous => 'hash'};, a personal blog at anonymoushash.vmbrasseur.com about business, career and programming. Since 2011, 27 different Hacker News readers have linked it 70 times, most often “The problem with Amazon and Open Source isn’t Amazon (2019)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-07-01, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (9) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Essays on open-source licensing and business models, including the Elastic/SSPL licence change and the argument that open source is not a business model. HN readers cite them in debates about funding open source.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 9 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
The professional blog of VM Brasseur, concerned primarily with open source, strategy, management, business, and the overlaps between them.
Most-linked posts?
- The problem with Amazon and Open Source isn’t Amazon (2019)7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2019-06-07
- Open source is not a business model (2018)4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-06-08
- Elasticsearch and Kibana are now business risks4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-01-14
- A new book about FOSS strategy in business3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-03-20
- Spread the word: Marketing your FOSS project2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-12-21
- Software Bill of Materials (SBOM)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-04-24
- My Travel Habits2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-11-25
- FOSS’ killer app: Licensing innovation2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-05-03
- Don’t hire team members like they’re consultants2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-10-17
- FOSS License Compliance Enforcement2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-03-20
What Hacker News says?
If your organisation uses the Apache v2 licensed Elasticsearch or Kibana in its projects or products, it must now assume that it is at risk one way or another. It can upgrade to version 7.11 of these projects, thereby accepting the terms of SSPL and potentially also being required to release the code for its entire stack (a great deal of which it will not have the copyright over and will be unable to release, thereb…
Comment linking /2021/01/14/elasticsearch-and-kibana-are-now-business-risks
on “Amazon: Not OK – Why we had to change Elastic licensing”Submitted Open source is not a business model (2018) as a story · 186 points
HN discussion> As I understand it the only prohibition of use is to offering the software as a cloud-hosted solution of the software itself. You very profoundly and deeply misunderstand what the SSPL actually says, which is understandable because Elastic have helped promulgate this misinformation. Please go read the license. It is not straightforward, it's very vague and exposes an organization to enormous uncertainty. If you do…
Comment linking /2021/01/14/elasticsearch-and-kibana-are-now-business-risks
on “AWS announces forks of Elasticsearch and Kibana”Submitted Elasticsearch and Kibana are now business risks as a story · 94 points
HN discussionWell, Open source is NOT a business model (and your business will fail if you think that it is) https://anonymoushash.vmbrasseur.com/2018/08/24/open-source-... Previous HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26602316
Comment linking /2018/08/24/open-source-is-not-a-business-model-and-your-business-will-fail-if-you-think-that-it-is/
on “I turned my open-source project into a full-time business”Submitted Software and Copyright: It’s Complicated as a story · 41 points
HN discussionReminds me of "open source is not a business model": https://anonymoushash.vmbrasseur.com/2018/08/24/open-source-... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26602316
Comment linking /2018/08/24/open-source-is-not-a-business-model-and-your-business-will-fail-if-you-think-that-it-is/
on “I'm giving up on open source”Submitted The Open Source Series at Pragmatic Bookshelf as a story · 12 points
HN discussionI would encourage people to read the article. VM Brasseur has a click-baity title, which is fine, but the point they are making is actually a bit more subtle. I'll quote from the article: > There is a great number of potential business models, but “open source” is not one of them. It is, instead, one of the many tools that can be employed in order to make a selected business model work as expected. > Therefore open…
Comment linking /2021/03/19/coming-soon-a-new-book-about-foss-strategy-in-business
on “Open source is not a business model (2018)”Submitted Elasticsearch and Kibana are now business risks as a story · 7 points
HN discussionKudos! Highly recommended article [1] about what the ES move realy means 1. https://anonymoushash.vmbrasseur.com/2021/01/14/elasticsearc...
Comment linking /2021/01/14/elasticsearch-and-kibana-are-now-business-risks
on “Doubling down on permissive licensing and the Elasticsearch lockdown”Submitted Put down the torch, pick up the scalpel: The Future of the FSF as a story · 6 points
HN discussionThis seems like someone with a ideological bone to pick. You don't need to opensource your software that uses their products. They link this article of their's at the bottom: https://anonymoushash.vmbrasseur.com/2019/06/07/the-problem-... This tells you everything about their stance: "If these companies actually cared about the projects, they would have invested the resources to build stronger communities around the…
Comment linking /2019/06/07/the-problem-with-amazon-and-open-source-isnt-amazon/
on “Elasticsearch and Kibana are now business risks”Submitted FOSS’ killer app: Licensing innovation as a story · 4 points
HN discussionHere are the other parts of the series: Part 2: http://anonymoushash.vmbrasseur.com/2013/07/22/the-rising-co... Part 3: http://anonymoushash.vmbrasseur.com/2013/07/22/the-rising-co...
Comment linking /2013/07/22/the-rising-costs-of-aging-perlers-part-3-the-suggestions/
on “The Rising Costs of Aging Perlers”Submitted The Difference Between Free Software and Open Source as a story · 4 points
HN discussionTell them it is risk management; funding OSS ensures that projects you depend on will exist as OSS into the future and hopefully have less bugs and security problems. For example: https://anonymoushash.vmbrasseur.com/2022/10/27/open-source-...
Comment linking /2022/10/27/open-source-relicensing-business-risk
on “Sponsor the open source projects you depend on”Submitted A brief introduction to copyright and licensing as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Commons Clause Is a Legal Minefield and a Very Bad Idea as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Rising Costs of Aging Perlers as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Use Perl? Then get yourself in the Perl Companies database as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Announcing the Perl Companies project as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted The problem with Amazon and Open Source isn’t Amazon (2019) as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Redis Labs and the Questionable Business Decision as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted The OpenStack identity crisis as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Don’t hire team members like they’re consultants as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted How Not to Hire an Entirely Remote Workforce as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Updating an old Ubuntu to a supported version as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted FOSS License Compliance Enforcement as a story · 2 points
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