Questions tagged [software-development]
The software-development tag has no usage guidance.
34
questions
38
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6
answers
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Why would anyone contribute to Android?
I think of open-source developers as people with a certain sense of social responsibility. In that regard, why would someone decide to contribute to Android? Why help Google make more money? How does ...
37
votes
4
answers
8k
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Why did Google make Chromium Open Source?
This question really baffles me. What advantage does making it Open Source bring? Aren't they worried someone can learn the secrets in their code and make a competing version of chrome?
17
votes
4
answers
663
views
Does the open/free content movement lower the barriers of entry for non-qualified people?
The question Do you need a degree ... was closed as off-topic as it clearly applied to any area of development, not specifically open/free content development.
This question is a re-framing, but very ...
13
votes
5
answers
9k
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What prevents a large company with deep pockets from rebranding my MIT project and killing me off?
I'm planning to start an MIT licensed project for a Web Server like Apache and Nginx, but primarily targeting the Windows Platform. Those that don't understand open source software are calling me ...
10
votes
1
answer
626
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Creating an open-source project that includes Open Game License 1.0a content
Looking through Wizards of the Coast Open Game License 1.0a, and reading around it, it seems it is a weak copyleft license, where anyone can distribute content that derives from OGL content, provided ...
9
votes
4
answers
198
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When joining open source project, how to get out of the code review swamp?
This is not my work. I am free just to walk away, but would be interesting to know if any better solution could possibly exist. I do not name the project because discrediting it is not between my ...
9
votes
1
answer
145
views
Licensing a project which is still under development
As the title suggests I'm a bit confused when it comes to licencing in the middle of development.
Say the following situation (for the sake of argument I'm the only contributor):
I make a project ...
8
votes
3
answers
164
views
Is it appropriate for me to have multiple project maintainers in this project?
I'm currently the sole maintainer of an API that a friend and I have written. It is currently written in Java, and is designed to make a lot of the low level interfaces high-level, to help ease the ...
7
votes
3
answers
159
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How to keep open source projects up to date
I am working on an open source collaborative project with numerous other people.
Often many people are working on it at once. This creates problems with multiple versions of the same file.
Is there ...
5
votes
3
answers
123
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I was told by a project that they only want my help on a few things
I am a young programmer who is interested in many many different types of projects and often start my own projects which are far too large to complete by myself so I went out and tried to find a ...
5
votes
3
answers
353
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Does a CC BY-SA 4.0 specification lose any AGPL3+ benefits?
If I release a program specification [1] under the AGPL, and the program itself under the AGPL, the two are obviously compatible: I can develop them at the same time, copy text (for example, method ...
4
votes
6
answers
1k
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How can a software company cope with more and more customers asking for open source software
My company has invested a lot in R&D over the past 3 years.
It led to the development of a system we can use as a base to build custom software for our customers.
More and more customers want ...
4
votes
1
answer
208
views
Can a GPL-licensed library be used in private development builds of a proprietary application?
I'm considering using this GPL-3.0-licensed library as a development aid in a game. Development builds that include this library (and other unrelated tools) would be used by myself and any parties ...
4
votes
1
answer
125
views
Rebranding existing library under MIT
I bit of background: When I was working in my previous company I came up with an idea to extract all some generic functionality from the different projects and create open source library (MIT) from ...
4
votes
1
answer
151
views
Is it legal to publish an open source adapter to a closed source SDK?
OSIsoft, LLC publishes an SDK with their PI System, to which I wrote a python adapter. At this point it is for internal use in our company only, but I think it is potentially useful to other users of ...
3
votes
1
answer
292
views
What is a good license for a software project template?
I am looking for a suitable license for a current software project. The project is special as it is rather a template, its primary goal is to provide a solid basis for scientific software. Therefore, ...
3
votes
1
answer
57
views
How can I convince conventional colleagues to venture out into the open source domain?
How can I convince conventional colleagues to venture out into the open source domain? I have worked in large private companies, many are reluctant to adopt any
open source libraries for any level of ...
3
votes
0
answers
31
views
Transitioning to Version Control [closed]
Until now, we have not had an application version strategy or version-ed our application. We are considering doing so with our next release. What are the minimum tasks necessary to transition to a ...
2
votes
1
answer
55
views
How difficult is it for a developer to combine features from two separate open source solutions?
My company is looking to build a marketplace for peer to peer services. You could think Thumbtack type setup. We have identified two to three open-source platforms we could use as a base, but each ...
2
votes
1
answer
109
views
Do I need to attribute icons not used anymore but visible on GitHub's previous commits?
I'm developing a mobile app and I'm using GitHub for source code which is set to public, so I can show my friends.
I was using some free icons from www.flaticon.com/home , which required the ...
2
votes
1
answer
195
views
How to effectively browse mailing lists
There are many open source projects whose development is officially discussed through mailing lists (the obvious example being the Linux kernel).
Being young and spoiled by nice clean website design,...
1
vote
1
answer
76
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GPL libraries on my software
I am attempting to write a Hobbyist OS and found that the CuteOS project is very useful for reference and libraries. The only issue is: it's under the GPLv2, and from my understanding if you use a ...
1
vote
1
answer
70
views
Any lasting licensing implications from previously used, subsequently dropped library dependencies or usage licenses?
I will start off with this excerpt from Qt's legal faq to give some context:
3.13. I have started development of a product using the open source version of Qt, can I now purchase a commercial ...
1
vote
0
answers
37
views
What are appropriate actions when particular linux project seems dead?
It seems no one reads email list, bugs and the last commit was in 2015. At the same time, the project is heavily used.
What would be the appropriate action to find new company to maintain the ...
1
vote
0
answers
31
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Plagiarism? What are the requirements to Modeling/adapting published research for software development? [closed]
I would like to create a suite of software tools (for commercial use) to be used by medical professionals in their daily practice. This will require that I utilize information published in medical ...
0
votes
2
answers
162
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Why don't we have a full-fledged alternative for the Android OS?
Why can't we have a mobile operating system and applciation store that is independent of any country's current political views? It would be an alternative of Google's Android OS. Or if it exists, why ...
0
votes
1
answer
163
views
What are the libraries Blender is based on for mesh visualization and editing? [closed]
I'd like to make a software on Python with a GUI for 3D visual editing of meshes. That's why I ask the question. I suppose at least one mesh editing library is used. And at least one 3d visualization ...
0
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Free Download Manager Development [FDM] [closed]
Is the development of Free Download Manager halted? The last code committed was in 2014 :/
Here is a link to the repository.
-1
votes
2
answers
114
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What are the prerequisites for contributing to my first open source project?
I have learned python and SQL and want to start with open source contributions, is the knowledge of python enough (along with git) to contribute or is there something else as well that I need to learn?...
-1
votes
1
answer
82
views
A worldwide software todo list [closed]
When someone wants to develop a project but has no idea of what to do, where does he/she go to look for ideas? I guess i.e. github will be part of an answer.
But is there any platform out there with ...
-1
votes
1
answer
32
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Where to find interviewees for questions about user experience in open source software? [closed]
We’re two information systems students at Uppsala university, Sweden, currently working on our bachelor’s thesis. The aim of our paper is to investigate usability in open-source software and conduct a ...
-3
votes
1
answer
97
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Cross Platform Open Source Projects
All open-source projects I have come across so far appear to be cross-platform, such as VLC, GIMP, and OpenOffice. All of this software is able to be run on multiple devices, including Windows and Mac ...
-3
votes
1
answer
74
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Is the entire beta/release candidate process of open source projects mostly just "for show"?
This risks offending some. I don't mean to. I'm seriously wondering about this. And it's not at all specifically about PHP; it's just that this is such a major, critical software project which is ...
-4
votes
1
answer
154
views
Where is the VLC changelog? [closed]
There was finally (after like a year) a new minor version of VLC released. Neither the program itself, nor the website, says one single word about what changes have been made. I've spent like an hour ...