Why is activeCollab free?
activeCollab is released under the terms of General Public License and is 100% free
Short history
First version of activeCollab was written somewhere about May 2005 for personal use. I wanted Basecamp but couldn't afford it. Being a student with a few freelance jobs I just couldn’t guaranty that I’ll have the money for it every month. So I made one for myself... That version is running on my localhost even today.
Version that is now available is big rewrite of that script. Everything is done from scratch – framework, business logic, interface. Experience that I gained developing first version helped a lot. I knew for some existing problems, had most of the business logic in place and really solid guides. It was real fun making activeCollab.
So, the code is here, I think it's well programmed (it will get even better with time), it's working properly. Hope you’ll enjoy it.
Why free?
This thing could be sold pretty easily for some real money. Here are reasons why I released the code under the open source license, free of charge:
- Putting commercial product on the internet is pretty hard, especially when you are not from United States or United Kingdom.
- I want to learn as much as I can about web development (client side, server side, development practices…) and open source project is the best way to do that. Many programmer looking at your code is always a good thing. Sometimes you’ll be ashamed of stupid mistake or a bad habit, but that's normal as long as you fix it and learn from it.
- Clients rarely pay you to spend hours working on small details. Personal project where you are the boss let you show how far you can go. Everything just needs to be perfect and if it’s not than it's time to go and make it better.
- Meeting other people. My email is ilija.studen@gmail.com so please drop a line or two.
- Making money. I find it normal to expect something in return for your work. activeCollab will always be free but there will be commercial support as soon as we hit 1.0 for people who need a little more that community support, you can hire me to customize activeCollab to fit your needs or help you integrate it with system you are already running on your server. Or you can just see what I can do and hire me for some project not related with activeCollab.
- Feeling is much better when you provide free alternative than selling cloned application.
My opinion is that this reasons are good enough. Am I being too honest?
Posted on: 2006-06-18 11:01
Comments:
I second that
It’s a perfectly sound business model. I’ll be one fo your first customers when you get to 1.0. In the meantime, I’m already using 0.6 and very happy with it.
Thanks for the great work so far. I have made a donation and I hope others do, too!
I discovered activeCollab today and installed it on my Dreamhost hosted site. Thanks! It’s working great!
I think your head is in the right place. You have that special talent for programming – along with an eye for design. This is not an easy thing to achieve.
I have installed version 0.6 on our servers with absolutely no problems. The install was easy as advertised.
Keep up the excellent work!
Les
I have installed version 0.6 on our servers with absolutely no problems. The install was easy as advertised.
Keep up the excellent work!
Les
Great Job! We have been using BaseCamp to manage our client projects. We are now using activeCollab internally and with 2 of our clients – Internet Marketing Strategy development. We look forward to the 1.0 release so that we can implement for all of our projects. Thanks again!
-ethan
-ethan
I putting myself in the same line!
Great job.
Please keep up the good work!! I will dnoate a few bucks once in 1.0.
Things I miss in BC is the ability to put due dates on tasks. I think this is a good feature to have. and please RSS feed…
Great job.
Please keep up the good work!! I will dnoate a few bucks once in 1.0.
Things I miss in BC is the ability to put due dates on tasks. I think this is a good feature to have. and please RSS feed…
Hi there,
Have not tried activeCollab yet, as the server is currently running php 4.0, but I like your reasoning for making it free.
It really does help you to get noticed, and lends you a great amount of credability. Being from Australia, and running my own web development company I often use a combination of local and overseas programmers and one of the hardest things to do is to judge someones ability.
Looking forward to the 1.0 release, keep up the good work! ;-)
Have not tried activeCollab yet, as the server is currently running php 4.0, but I like your reasoning for making it free.
It really does help you to get noticed, and lends you a great amount of credability. Being from Australia, and running my own web development company I often use a combination of local and overseas programmers and one of the hardest things to do is to judge someones ability.
Looking forward to the 1.0 release, keep up the good work! ;-)
“open source license, free of charge” – Ilija
How I would prefer that you used “Free and Open Source Software” here, instead of just “open source”.
A common error people make is thinking that there is neither money to earn nor business to make with the Free Software. With GPL you could even change us for downloading program (with the source).
What GPL allows everyone is the four freedoms and that is all about it.
I’m already using it in a specific project and I must say that this is the less blowted tool I ever seen for plain project management. And I worked with other projects like PHProjekt, dotProject and Achievo.
Can’t wait for the 0.7 :)
How I would prefer that you used “Free and Open Source Software” here, instead of just “open source”.
A common error people make is thinking that there is neither money to earn nor business to make with the Free Software. With GPL you could even change us for downloading program (with the source).
What GPL allows everyone is the four freedoms and that is all about it.
I’m already using it in a specific project and I must say that this is the less blowted tool I ever seen for plain project management. And I worked with other projects like PHProjekt, dotProject and Achievo.
Can’t wait for the 0.7 :)
I’m the president of a non-profit with 10,000 members and only 1 paid person – me. the longer I stay in non-profit work the less money I make, but the more fulfilling my life is.
I totally understand where you are coming from!!! I am going to try and sell my Board on activecollab as soon as possible…
We dont have a lot of money (sometimes i dont get paid on time) but thats because it goes directly to the people. you should know that when you are creating things like this, what you are in essence doing is enriching the lives of others by only one or two degrees.
I hope to have a glowing recommendation to give you for your website.
I totally understand where you are coming from!!! I am going to try and sell my Board on activecollab as soon as possible…
We dont have a lot of money (sometimes i dont get paid on time) but thats because it goes directly to the people. you should know that when you are creating things like this, what you are in essence doing is enriching the lives of others by only one or two degrees.
I hope to have a glowing recommendation to give you for your website.
I’ve been using Basecamp for much longer than I’ve wanted. I pay them $49/mo. for the time-tracking enabled account level but find that they simply don’t seem to care about their customer’s needs. Actually, they’ve become quite arrogant, and in “Getting Real” they’ve lost touch.
I’ve been testing various open source alternatives. Your star candidate product is off to a great start, and the most usable. I can confidently see using it as soon as there is time tracking. I can’t wait to make it my official PM tool. And I thank you in advance for giving me the joyful hope that I can finally leave Basecamp.
I thank you and wish you great success.
I’ve been testing various open source alternatives. Your star candidate product is off to a great start, and the most usable. I can confidently see using it as soon as there is time tracking. I can’t wait to make it my official PM tool. And I thank you in advance for giving me the joyful hope that I can finally leave Basecamp.
I thank you and wish you great success.
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Eric
2006-07-06 6:57
Job well done! Thank you…
Eric