The Unbrickable Pledge
9 points by rishikesh
9 points by rishikesh
Some of the details posted here the last time this company was discussed make me think this promise probably isn't trustworthy until the code is in hand and tested in the wild.
Given the many precedents where it turned out that just releasing what there is not actually a working option, and not all of those precedents ended up with releasing anything at all — I think it would be more convincing if there was an explicit promise of periodically checking internally that a specific tarball or whatever is publishable as is (in case the hosted service is dicontinued) and sufficient at least for single-user self-hosting.
I'll believe it when they hire a third party to periodically build it with publicly released files.
Yeah, I gather it's common in big contractual situations where the customer is afraid the vendor might disappear to have an escrow house hold source drops and confirm that they can be built. Then the escrow house can release the source when certain conditions are met, like the vendor going under or cancelling the product line.
Neat! Though I would ask: what's the harm in releasing it publicly now (even as just a tarball)? The sort of people interested in buying this device probably aren't interested in DIYing an alternative using the company's code since they're willing to pay for convenience.