Debate - Has Compiere Become Closed? Do We Fork? How?

[red1]

Here we start a topic on whether there is a need to create a separate project on Compiere due to various issues.

This discussion has been ongoing among some circles and we now have to make it more public and progressive (who started it is not the issue here), but i been asked to host the discussion here so that it can be trimmed, hilighted and managed easily as compared to SourceForge's which we can't.

Comments are therefore allowed openly as to whether there is a need or otherwise for the above suggested topic. Those who wished to be anonymous can register under different pseudonyms. Whats important is not WHO says it but WHAT is said.

My opinion here:
1) Compiere is a very valuable and quality Open Source ERP/CRM project but many does not see it as community friendly as expected of such a potential-filled Open Source project. Now so with the recent funding, one would consider that Compiere Inc has the highest motivation to make avalaible resources, as well as the political advantage to do so. We can see an example in Eclipse where IBM its initiator spare nothing to support it, making it the ecosystem of IT Applications.
2) Compiere's direction seemed to be housed within its Partners Club which is only via paid membership. There is no open, continous and contributive exchange between the initiators of Compiere and the more robust outside world.
3) There has been numerous notable contributions by third party developers such as Marco Lombardo, Victor Perez, Trifon, Bob Klein, Peter Shen, and possibly me, etc but its not clear how our work is absorbed by the parent Open Source project. The worry is that as more contributions are made with more developers coming along the same path there may soon be a disparate concoction of sorts rather than a coherent project and identity.
4) All this nowithstanding, outside sincere contributions must continue to be made and housed in their respective locations, until such time a viable resolution of the above issues present itself. Taking the cue from Apache's name reason - "all the patches", we are possibly, slowly but surely forming the main project.

[rvergara]

[croo]

[afalcone]

[paviles]

[rvergara]

[chitech]

[red1]

[wellx]

[croo]

[pseudonimo]

[globalqss]

[red1]

[mhafod]

Hello,

I first tried Compiere back in 2003 but did not implement it live for the lack of any real clients.

Last June, I got a contract for setting up an ERP for a client which has 8 sites. After going through the compiere website and being hounded for a project estimate, I selected Compiere over ERP5 and TinyERP mainly because the client required access through a web client.

I have spent the last 2 months going through the documentation and setting up a test case.

Coming from an Oracle Forms and Reports background, the learning curve was not as steep as I thought. I understand there are a lot of things I still did not come across but my main problem at this moment is the lack of a true web client. The one included in the package is a joke and can't be used in a real world application.

I have done my homework and searched eveything there is to know about Compiere but I must say that there is very limited info. Except for Red1 and some of his documents, there is nothing.

At any rate, what is frightening to me at this point in time is the lack of involvement from the Compiere team. The sourceforge section states more than 50 developers but the actual number is TWO.

With the new financing they have and the new members of the board, it is evident that a new business model is going to be put in place. This is understandable and will need to be in place so as to recoup the investment. However, for those of us who are expecting some improvements on the base package, dark days lie ahead.

Forking is going to be required, sooner or later. The only question is how and by whom. As suggested in a previous, posts, some people tried but I believe they are using the same strategy as Compiere Inc.

I like the idea of Openbravo but it looks more like a commercial setup rather than an open source model with clear and open involvement from a dedicated community.

I suggest that a core team of members makes an official request to the compiere mgmt team in order to get a clarification on the status of the compiere package. Once a reply is received (or after waiting a set numbe rof days), a decision should be made on the FORK project.

Hafed

[globalqss]

[rvergara]

[trifon]

[red1]

[croo]

[trifon]

[pseudonimo]

[vpj-cd]

[rvergara]

[croo]

[vpj-cd]