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Free Software Project in the GeneXus Community

"It's a licensed free software product that seeks to create a development community around LibreFarm," Haroldo Stenger explains.

Have you published the whole KB in GXOpen?
We've made some cuts. For instance, the invoice report that it prints according to the specifications of a given client, has not been published because it had the name of the client, etc. All of the system modules and characteristics have been published; we only left out the really customized stuff.

How many objects does it have?
Between 800 and 1,000 objects, and between 250 and 300 tables. This knowledge base required a lot of work on my part, but as in everything, there is still room for improvement. I started developing it with GeneXus in 1996, based on my previous knowledge on the pharmacy business.

What are the technical characteristics of LibreFarm?
It has been developed with a previous GeneXus version (GeneXus 6.1 patch 5), which was a carefully thought-out decision. We have always wanted to work on the Linux platform because it provides higher security and versatility. I made some technical options like working with GeneXus, and working with the GeneXus Xbase generator, which is considered to be obsolete by the GeneXus community, although I believe this is unfair. I consider that there are cases in which it can be applied without a problem. I found that if I use an Xbase compiler under Linux, I have a 100%-GNU Linux production environment, and this is what I sell to clients: the installation of all those terminals, the server, and the possibility of interconnecting branches using the Linux technology. The application works in that environment. We charge for this service. Its implementation requires a lot of work, and this is why we charge for it. In addition, when we install a program, we also provide related services, such as network-related services, consulting, customer support (explanations on how things work, help the client adapt to the system and vice versa, etc). Then, the client calls us and that's when we need to offer a service that justifies, from an economic perspective, why a customer should pay for our consulting services. This is part of our business, and we want to get more out of that line of work. I think that from now on -after the publication of the KB- more service opportunities will arise, different kinds of service - some of them might be premium services. We might also witness growth in the number of companies providing more types of service.

So, a person can take the KB and propose a technological upgrade to the product and also to the clients...
Yes. And I think it is a good idea. The KB has been published under a license. All software is compliant to copyright law, which in itself forbids use, copy and modification, etc. In general, there are some restrictions on the use of proprietary products: there is a specific number of computers that you can use; there are specific purposes for which it can be used, depending on the country or the number of users. This KB has been published under the GPL license (General Public License), which is a legal document that certifies that you can use it for anything, including modifying and copying it...

And selling it too...
Yes. The license specifies that you may charge for distribution, that is, for saving it in a CD and distributing it. But how much will they pay you, if it is already available on the Internet? If you do not offer any added value, it is not worth it. Because if a person downloads it from the Internet, but they are not specialists, they will need to have someone else install it, put it together, etc. This is the kind of service I was telling you about earlier.
I will tell you what happens if somebody decides to upgrade the software and resell it. When you improve free software, you improve your copy. And if you do not go back and consolidate it with the previous KB, you leave the base KB behind. You split it up. If time goes by and you keep on adding modifications to the software, without consolidating it with the base Kb, you will end up having two different products. This is a problem because if we succeed in gathering a community around LibreFarm, and we manage to keep the community relatively united, somebody who decides to get out of the community will have to remain updated on what the community does. Keeping two separate projects at the same time is quite complex. It can be done, but it is very complex.

According to the GPL license, if I integrate other software into a product licensed as GPL, the integrated code becomes free software. Is this correct?
Yes. The license states that if you save a free software program and a copyright program in a CD, you may impose restrictions on the use of the copyright program, and clarify that the free software program may be copied. If, apart from that, you put a copyright program and a free software program together -or in the case of GeneXus, two KBs are consolidated- the union becomes so powerful that the license will necessarily have to embrace everything else. This does not mean that you are trying to adopt a copyright that does not belong to you or that you will license something that belongs to another person in a way that they do not want to. If the other party does not want this to happen, then the union should not be so strong. This is an option in the hands of the person who chooses free software in order to upgrade copyright software.
I can make my proprietary software work with free software; for instance, sharing a database -not a knowledge base- will not affect the copyright license. But if I add both programs and I turn them into a single one, sharing the data structures at the execution level with the programs' internal structures will necessarily extend the GPL license to the other program or will make the other program remain under a license compatible with the GPL, non-restrictive of the liberties offered by the GPL.

Why did you choose GXOpen to publish the KB?
Because it is a site that Nicolás Jodal (ARTech's Vice President) founded with a lot of vision. Unfortunately, so far I hadn't been able to contribute with any project. So this is our contribution to GXOpen (http://www.gxopen.com). We are fully aware that it is a very good idea for the GeneXus community. Up to now, the projects in GXOpen have not offered a specific license under which software could be used. KB owners would be doing a great favor by licensing the software under GPO or BSD. Moreover, GXOpen has had such a level of exposure among users that we know it is the best place for us to publish the KB. GXOpen provides visibility. Besides, programmers do not see the LibreFarm project as something chic; it is something that is going to be used for work. This generates an opportunity for working on a large, free project, inside the GeneXus community.
Free software has provided many things for us -Linux, the Web Apache server, etc. This is a way to contribute to everything that we have received from free software, given that we have been able to configure businesses by installing other people's software. From now on, we will also be able to do it using our own free software. Besides, it is a way for people in the free software community to get to know GeneXus. After all, the tool is needed in order to work with LibreFarm.

Published in GXOpen: Pharmacy Business Management project
http://www.gxopen.com/main/hproject.aspx?257 

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LibreFarm Published as Free Software