I’m a RoR fan. I’ve read some RoR books, and I’m starting to use RoR for
commercial proyects.
As I use RoR more and more, I think about inexistent tools that would be
great to have when developing applications in RoR. For example: an IDE
with more features than RadRails. So then I think “hey! you could
produce one of these tools”.
Some of these tools, I believe, would be really great for improving
efficiency while developing RoR applications… and here comes my
question for all of you: do you think that it’s ok to produce commercial
applications for RoR users?
Suppose that I release a commercial IDE, and it rocks. Would you think
that I suck because RoR is free, Migrations are free, the plugins are
free, but my IDE isn’t free?
I’m asking you this, because I’m not sure of the answer… for one part,
I prefer RoR over ASP.NET in part because Visual Studio is very
expensive. However, if you can only expect open-source developments for
RoR, you will have to wait many years to get a great IDE like Visual
Studio, for Rails.
When answering to this question, don’t think only about an IDE, think
about smaller products, like: plugins, components, etc. Should all of
them be open source? Would you buy a commercial tool to use for your
Rails proyects if it is a good tool and the price is fair?
I, like many people have paid for TextMate. I could have used radrails,
or some other editor, but I picked textmate because I like it.
If the price and product are right, why not. Some may refuse for
‘ideological’ reasons, but if it’s a good tool, well that’s their loss.
I, like many people have paid for TextMate. I could have used radrails,
or some other editor, but I picked textmate because I like it.
If the price and product are right, why not. Some may refuse for
‘ideological’ reasons, but if it’s a good tool, well that’s their loss.
Fred
Yep, you are right… I didn’t think about Textmate :d
Your sinlge post was enough for me to see that it’s ok to have
commercial applications as alternatives, even if the core of the
framework is open source. I’m now thinking about all those commercial
plugins, tools and components for php. I was a bit lost, because I
haven’t seen commercial things for rails.
There’s nothing wrong with producing commercial software for Rails, I
doubt you’ll find many mac users on this list who haven’t purchased
themselves a copy of Textmate. The key change in philosophy though is
that any software has to pass the value test. Gone are the days when
large companies footed the bill for expensive software licenses.
Many Rails developers work for small independent companies or startups
so Applications like Textmate which provide excellent productivity
improvements for modest investment are successful, whereas bloated,
expensive applications will most likeley not be.
Your sinlge post was enough for me to see that it’s ok to have
commercial applications as alternatives, even if the core of the
framework is open source. I’m now thinking about all those commercial
plugins, tools and components for php. I was a bit lost, because I
haven’t seen commercial things for rails.
There’s also Arachno IDE and Komodo, and Ruby in Steel for Visual
Studio. What I hope you will never find in the Ruby/Rails world is
tools costing $3000+ per seat. Many of the Java developers I work with,
using Rational Application Developer (expensive, based on an old version
of Eclipse) would rather be using the current Eclipse version.
