In our quest to improve the world, we want to build on what is already there. Thus we avoid wasting time duplicating work of other people (unavoidable in a proprietary software landscape, one of the reasons we avoid it) and home-grown mess. We rather contribute back and benefit from a community with exhaustive testing.
But oftentimes, good projects are buried amidst capitalistic trash built for quick money. So we have to regularly do extensive research to find worthy candidates. This document outlines some considerations along that process.
Procedure
Do not get bogged down in details - as a small team we need to commit our time effectively, and hours of research rarely lead to better results. Better take a quick glance around and then keep it in the back of your head until something pops up.
This process will soon feed into https://compareware.org, a database which can capture research results in a structured fashion. Until then, use a simple Markdown table.
These criteria generally apply unless mentioned otherwise:
Licensing and Availability
Open-source software with linux compatibility is a must. It is fine to list proprietary software (it can help clarify what we are looking for), but do not investigate it in-depth. Always add the license or proprietary. Note that GPL is best, as it ensures that the software stays Free forever. SSPL is a bit complicated, and often part of open-core software.
Also check if all the code is openly available, or whether there is a proprietary enterprise version ("Open Core") - oftentimes this negatively impacts the usefulness of the free version. An example for a monetized software without Open Core model is InvoiceNinja -
Open-source software for servers is also usually self-hostable, but it is good to check if there is documentation for sysadmins on how to set it up and ideally a helm chart for kubernetes or at least a docker image.
The deal with Open Core
Smaller Open Core products lock part of their features behind a paywall. Bigger Open Core products are usually an open source platform with some extensions proprietary. Many ERP systems as well as OwnCloud fall into this category.
The problem is that this impedes development of a healthy open source community because of a continual unclarity of incentives. The Open Core business model solely depends on customers paying for the proprietary parts, so the company could close-source the whole software at anytime, especially if contributors sign a CLA. This deters contributors that want to be sure they contribute to the common good through a public project.
The only guarantee is if the core is licensed under a copyleft license like GPL and there is no CLA - without the latter, the license cannot be changed without consent by all contributors, and as long as the software is GPL, no modification of it can be closed-source.
However, the company is usually also in charge of the main acquisition channel for extensions, so it is in their interest to block extensions that provide competing functionality to their proprietary variants, impeding innovation.
Compatibility
When it comes to android, degoogled phones (LineageOS / no GSM) have to be supported, a mobile app should ideally be available in the https://f-droid.org app store. iOS does not have priority as its convenience has a high price - in terms of money and freedom. We aspire a future where a libre device is just as convenient.