Ask Ethan
Ethan Galstad
egalstad at nagios.org
Tue Mar 2 05:55:29 CET 2010
The recent messages on this list indicate a need for better
communication between parties. It may be exciting to start a flame war
or launch personal attacks based on unfounded assumptions, but its not
effective or beneficial.
If you have questions for me about what I think regarding the future of
the Nagios Project, commercialization of Nagios, Nagios XI, trademarks,
community stuff, etc. - just ask. In order to expedite and coordinate
responses to share with the community, I've created a new "Ask Ethan"
form online where you can submit questions to me about whatever you'd
like. I'll answer these questions in the monthly Nagios News that goes
out. As long as there continues to be new questions, I'll do my best to
make "Ask Ethan" a permanent monthly section in the newsletter. Submit
a question at:
http://www.nagios.com/askethan
Here are some quick responses to questions I've seen asked. If you want
more detail on any of these, submit an "Ask Ethan" question at the link
above and I'll go into more depth in the newsletter...
1. Nagios Core and other OSS components of the Nagios Project are
important to both myself and Nagios Enterprises. Nagios XI (like many
other commercial solutions) is based on those components and we
definitely want those projects to flourish in the future. *I* may not
be the person actually coding or integrating patches (I've done that for
over a decade now), but I'm dedicated to finding ways to ensure the
project continues for at least the next decade. And just so there's no
confusion on the subject, Nagios Core will always be free as in speech
and beer.
2. Our commercial Nagios XI solution is not 100% Open Source, and it
probably won't ever be in its entirety. There are some really great
components that we license from other parties and we plan to include
other licensed components in the future. Why? They provide a better
solution to our customers than OSS alternatives (if they even exist).
Most all other commercial Nagios solutions out there go the same route.
3. While its relatively new for Nagios Enterprises, commercialization of
Nagios is going to expand in the future, so we can continue to provide
more great solutions for the people that need them. Commercialization
also makes it easier to provide resources to ensure the existing free
OSS projects prosper, and that new projects can be funded. If you
object to the commercialization of Nagios, consider this: the only
reason I wrote Nagios and released it as an OSS project in the first
place is because I intended to use it for commercial purposes.
4. We have, are, and will continue to regulate the use of the Nagios
mark and prevent its misuse to ensure the integrity of the Nagios name
and the future of the Nagios Project - just as I was personally doing
long before the conception of Nagios Enterprises. Our trademark policy
is almost an exact clone of the Ubuntu trademark policy. Its a great
policy that fits the needs of both community advocacy and the commercial
legal requirements for brand protection, anti-dilution, and consumer
confusion. Open Source licenses like the GPL only address copyright -
not trademark. Trademarks are a separate type of intellectual property
that is out of scope with what copyright covers.
5. I've dedicated the past 11 years to the Nagios project and have done
my best to keep the project going and keep it within the scope of what a
monitoring engine should be. You can jump to all the conclusions you'd
like, but unless you've dedicated several consecutive years to building,
maintaining, and supporting a project like Nagios, you simply have no
idea what it takes to take care of everything that happens along the
way. The choices that I make are what I consider to be in the best
interest of the project in the long run. You don't have to agree with
me. I have no intention of trying to make each and every single Nagios
user out there happy. It isn't possible.
6. There is nothing broken or wrong with Nagios Core the way it is. Its
a monitoring *engine*. It works well for hundreds of thousands of users
today. Many people still run Nagios 2.x, 1.x, or even NetSaint -
because its works just the way it is. An integrated DB-backend, web
based configuration engine, and a whole lot of other stuff are out of
scope for Nagios Core - that's what addons are for. Even the Nagios
Plugins are out of scope for Nagios Core - that's why they're a separate
project. If you want something additional in Nagios, check out all the
addons that are available on Nagios Exchange. Start your own addon
project if a suitable one doesn't exist, or contribute to an existing
project if you see a need for improvement. If you see a problem in
Nagios Core, step up and make a patch. Don't complain if someone else
doesn't produce something that you want.
Lastly, I would urge you to wait a few hours and consider things
carefully before you decide to fire off a flaming email insulting or
making accusations towards myself, other core contributors, or community
members. Its not only unprofessional and counterproductive, it is also
somewhat self-defeating in that it is akin to biting the hand that feeds
you. If you insult Nagios OSS developers, how do you expect new
contributors to want to join the various Nagios projects and donate
their free time to bring you great software? It doesn't make sense. I
could have a hell of a time asking new people to join the teams if they
expect to be treated poorly by people they're delivering free stuff to.
Remember that people that contribute to OSS projects like Nagios
generally do so in their free time, and of their own accord. You can't
expect everyone to be available to you all the time, and at any time you
wish. I don't owe you anything when it comes to the time I can commit
to various projects and neither do the other people that contribute
their time to Nagios projects. Period.
- Ethan
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