Fortunately, the internet and the type of software that runs on it has changed the way we develop software. One drawback to this is that the wonderful open source software licenses that brought you great programs like the Apache web server, the gnu compiler (gcc), and even the linux kernel don’t quite mesh with this new paradigm. Some might call it the GPL loophole, but to PBooks it is a delay.
I’ve been waiting for the AGPL version 2 (AGPLv2) to be released, but I’ve grown impatient and am now going through the motions to release the current code snapshot as AGPL. If you are unfamiliar with the AGPL, check it out here:
http://www.affero.org/oagpl.html
The reason for doing this is two fold:
- As I understand it, the AGPL will be compatible with the GPL v3 when it is released (http://www.affero.org/oagf.html)
- I’d like to align with the success and momentum of the GnuCash project, and I feel like the AGPL is the most conducive “web-software” open source license which could mesh and collaborate with GnuCash.
More info:
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/2007-03-29-gplv3-saas
http://www.devchannel.org/webserviceschannel/02/05/21/2245226.shtml?tid=1
UPDATE: When browsing the GnuCash source code, I noticed it has support for a Postgres SQL db backend. Cool! I’ll have to take a closer look at that and see how they’ve modeled the data. Yeah, GnuCash has some quality documentation going on, check out this stuff:
GnuCash Documentation
GnuCash XML formats
GnuCash DTDs
This might be a fun thing to do on a rainy day: GnuCash on Mac OS X Quartz. Here are some notes on installing GnuCash with Darwin Ports using X11 as the windowing system.
Example GnuCash Screenshot:
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