Open Source CFML, the Door is Open
The discussion of Free software is always an interesting one. Cost-Free with limitations, or total software freedom which is most important to you?
New Atlanta, the creator of the alternative CFML server to Adobe’s ColdFusion, announced today that they will be migrating their BlueDragon product to Open Source Software.
This is a big announcement for the ColdFusion communities, as it finally levels the playing field for the OS advocates that consdired CFML a non-starter in platform selection. Unfortunately there is a lot more to the process open sourcing a product, and it really all comes down to motives. Is this a marketing scheme to capture some significant market share form the incumbent ColdFusion? Or is New Atlanta really trying to create an open atmosphere for contribution and advancement of this platform? In either case the company is in for some hard work. If the company is really only looking to get more installs of its product by making a free (do what you want with it ) version, then they have just opened up a sizable hole in the companies income stream. If they are truely hoping to create a community around an Open Source CFML engine, then the work required will be even harder. People will choose free, they will gain users, but contributors to this type of project are hard to come by. I know from experience that finding Java developers to work on CF community projects is like squeezing water from a rock. Luckily New Atlanta has a staff of developers to continue building and contributing to the server platform, or else this project could see a quick end.
The path that lie ahead in building an Open Source community around BlueDragon is certainly long, but at least the door is open.
Whoo-hoo! Good news. I hope they don’t remove PDF creation as one of the built-in functions in their open source release.