Ask HN: Should I open-source my code? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Should I open-source my code?

29 pointsendriju18 comments

I have developed this service in my free time: www.exmerg.com I was hoping for it to become a product with a functioning business model, but i was struggling to come up with one.

Right now i am about to quit freelancing and accept a job at global corporation.

Would there be anyone interested in the code if I open-sourced it? (It's Java and Javascript, plus ExtJS framework).

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Whether anyone wants/is interested in the code, open sourcing it is effectively the modern bullet point on your resume. Open source, it, write some good documentation and let it run wild if it's desired, but if it's not, it will still look good as a personal and technical achievement.

Good luck at globocorp! :)

If you open source it, pick a license that's more restrictive (e.g. AGPL). This leaves a chance for you to get lucky and sell it to a company who wants it to use it as closed source so that you can buy a few beers. Otherwise they will just take it and use it without a single thank you. Probably I'll get downvoted for this but IMO releasing work under the BSD, Apache or a copyleft license that you created on your free time is like playing charity for large corporations.

> releasing work under the BSD, Apache or a copyleft license that you created on your free time is like playing charity for large corporations.

I agree with you, but "copyleft" is the concept that keeps software from becoming proprietary. Apache-style licenses are permissive, GPL-style licenses are copyleft.

I don't understand the 'I was hoping for it to become a product with a functioning business model, but i was struggling to come up with one.'

On the site it says:

> there is no fee and it’s completely free.

So why not change that? Set up a 3 tier 'buy' page and charge $0.15 per merge if you buy 10 merges, $0.12 if you buy 50 and $0.10 if you buy a 100 pack.

That way you can figure out if people are actually willing to pay for this service.

Open sourcing it is great but that still requires someone to run it.

Just try making it a paid service first, if that does not work you can always re-consider and make it open source after all.

Assuming there wasn't significant interest as a free service then charging for it won't solve the current problems.

I think a better alternative to open sourcing it would be to try and sell it for a couple thousand dollars. Take that money and make a weekend trip somewhere.

Open sourcing it won't get much more mileage than being able to point future employers to the project as a reference for your work. But that's a strategy with little risk and effort that maybe better than nothing.

Thanks everyone for the valuable feedback, i appreciate it! The option that i am most likely to go with is to open source and document the interesting parts of the code (parsing sheets, merging data) and keep the site as an example use case for the OS projects.

Awesome. I look forward to your Show HN post.

Managing an open source project involves a bit of work and time on your behalf especially if you want to build a following. You have to keep everything up to date: documentation, wiki, code, issues etc… And if you want contributors then you have to make sure your code is understandable and properly organised. (and I should be following my own advice!)

Once you put your code out there you must also be ready for criticism: some good and some awful. But from my experience it's the best thing you can do as a developer because it will definitely help you grow and force you to code better (hopefully).

I think I was very lucky because when I posted my first open source project on HN (https://github.com/johnwilson/bytengine) it was a positive experience and when you get that kind of feedback you really don't want to "let the community down" by slacking on your commits and other project upkeep duties (which I have).

So I think you basically have to ask yourself if you just want a public code archive that you can point people to once in a while and say hey I did that or if you want to build a community around your project and turn it into something great!

Best of luck and thanks for posting this, it has given me a little kick in the butt!

There's really no reason to not open source it. Unless you just want to burn your code and your work. Throw it on github, and maybe somebody will find a use for it.

I'd say I'd like to play around with it. But merging data files doesn't work over a web interface :\ since then I'd need to upload like 4 GB lol.

If there's a piece of this that you think'd be especially useful, like the merging of data, then it'd be nice to pull that out and open source just this piece.

But if you don't have the time or want to expend the effort, I agree with what some others have posted here. Open source it with some decent documentation and screenshots. It could serve you well down the road.

Interesting service. Spreadsheet merging isn't the easiest thing ever. :-)

I am a firm proponent of libre software and encourage you to open source it under a strong copyleft license. If it is really useful, it will be picked up someday and looked at. If not useful, then it's not a great loss to you.

There is certainly value in open sourcing a project, just for the attention it can get you. I don't know if it's going to change much for what you are doing, but you never know.

I'm receiving code 503 at http://app.exmerg.com/

Fixed now. Thanks

I tried to create a simple chart: * clicked "add column chart" * dragged "sector" column to x-axis * dragged "price" column to y-axis

Values in the chart don't seem right, see "Health Care" for example. If i click "disable paging" all other sections show with empty y-values.

Is it possible to include charts in exported xls?

That's currently not possible, but you can save the chart as png (click Preview, then right click and Save Image As..)

If you can't make money on it then open source it if you have time

Easiest way to find out is to open-source it.

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