Python - open forever ?

[mr.happy]

On Thu, 13 May 2004 15:55:53 +0300, Romans Krjukovs wrote:

> - There is a risk that Python can become closed and unsupported in the
> future.
>   (Remember RedHat ?)

RedHat is still open and supported, I don't know where you got the
information that is was supposed to be closed and unsupported now. You can
get the sources for RHES, they are available on the RH ftp servers.

On the support side, they probably have better support now then ever
before, though it's a bit more expensive now.

> - Who can guarantee that Python will be usable and available  to us if
> it is
>   develeped and maintained by the hackers from all over the world
> without
>   any obligations and guarantees ?

who will guarantee you that software x from company y will be available to
you! company y might go bust or just stop development of software x
because there was no profit made with the product. _that_ is one fear you
never have to deal with, as OSS programs exists because they are, and in
theory never die. don't think it never happens, i have been in the IT
world for a while and i've seen these commercial programs come and go, and
when they are gone, you can do nothing but quickly upgrade to something
else.

even if for some reason all development would stop on python, the sources
are still available and your company could hire programmers to continue
the development as a last resort.

> - How we can minimize such risk ? (Become a member of some club,
>   buy licenses, support etc.)

see this: http://www.python.org/psf/donations.html
and this: http://www.python.org/psf/mission.html

greets,
-- 
There is no statute of limitations on stupidity.