9/30/2009
In brief:
Gurux Ltd goes Open Source on 30th September 2009. Practically this means that all Gurux software will be available to be used and developed without license fees. Going Open Source is carried through in cooperation with COSS, Finnish central association of Open Source Solutions. Gurux Ltd has also joined in a research project of the local University of Technology, to study building Open Source communities. The main goal of going Open Source is to reach a vaster group of users, and thereby get more feedback. On the grounds of the feedback, the software is then to be developed more user-friendly.
GURUX LTD GOES OPEN SOURCE
Open Source software is a software anyone can use, develop, and modify for free. It is easy to see, why Open Source software appeals to more and more users all over the world. Programming skills are no longer that much a rarity among the end users of all kinds of software. And keeping up with this trend is vital to any software producer.
Gurux Ltd, a Finnish producer of device communication software, has been moving step by step towards going Open Source for quite a while now. After releasing Windows Vista compatible versions, of its device communication programs, in June 2008, Gurux Ltd published GXDN, Gurux Developer Network. All components of Gurux device communication software were carefully documented, and revealed to the public in February 2009.
To go Open Source was obviously not lightly decided. And even after making that decision, it took a lot of planning to sort out how and when. In the beginning of August the project of going Open Source had proceeded to a point of joining a research project in Tampere University Of Technology, about building Open Source communities. Gurux Ltd also joined in COSS, which is a central association of Open Source Solutions in Finland. Now it has been made known to the public that all Gurux software is to be published under GPL2 on 30th September. What is Gurux looking forward to gain?
? Going Open Source is a good way to get a vaster group of users for our software. Not vaster only by number, but also by different experience, background, and special needs. Our software developing process has always been user-centered. With going Open Source, we hope to get even more feedback, and be able to make our software even better, says Mikko Kurunsaari, the managing director of Gurux Ltd.
To some, going Open Source may not seem such a good idea. The opponents say that it is not good business thinking to start giving products away for free. So, why give up good sales and go Open Source?
? At Gurux, we don’t see going Open Source that much as giving something up, but rather as an invitation to the users of our software, to join us developing it, Kurunsaari says.
Gurux Ltd
Mikko Kurunsaari
Hermiankatu 6-8 H
FI-33720 TAMPERE
+358 3 265 1244
mikko.kurunsaari@gurux.org
http://www.gurux.org