Hacker News Reader

Comment by throw10920 | Hacker News Reader

> Developer tools, especially ones around code should be open-source.

I don't agree. I want the freedom to choose what tools I use, and what their development/profit models are.

Open-source does not mean we do not have a sustainable business model. We offer enterprise license for specific plugins and hosted solutions as well. The difference is that you can read our code, audit it and self-host the full platform with less frictions. Kafka and Airflow are also open-source but the commercial company backing them are thriving. Plus if we were to disappear, the project would continue to go forward.

How would the product go forward?

By what definition is a company “thriving” that is losing money?

Confluent (Kafka)

https://siliconangle.com/2022/08/03/confluent-reports-strong...

> The company reported a loss before certain costs such as stock compensation of 16 cents per share, with revenue coming to $139.4 million in the quarter, growing 58% from a year earlier. That resulted in a net loss of $117.6 million for the quarter.

The company behind AirFlow is AirBnB. Yes it’s “thriving”. But not based on AirFlow.

Or you know, this little company called astronomer https://www.astronomer.io ...

Isn’t that “just” a hosted version of Airflow? If it is, that’s a different value proposition/risk assessment. If Astronomer goes out of business, you just take your code and host it somewhere else.

Or is that exactly the point you are making?

We are open-source so yes, that is the point that I am making. We offer a hosted version of Windmill and plugins but the core will live-on forever.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com