Comments on: What Makes uPortal Unique? http://jjmarkow.wordpress.com/2007/12/18/what-makes-uportal-unique/ Observations and musings from Jonathan Markow Sat, 19 Jan 2008 22:08:34 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Andrew Petro http://jjmarkow.wordpress.com/2007/12/18/what-makes-uportal-unique/#comment-12 Andrew Petro Sat, 19 Jan 2008 22:08:34 +0000 http://jjmarkow.wordpress.com/2007/12/18/what-makes-uportal-unique/#comment-12 > The key features that differentiate uPortal from other products, > whether commercial or open source I think it's important not to set the terms "commercial" and "open source" up as alternatives like this. They are orthogonal. Commercial endeavors can contribute to and generate open source or closed source software. Alfresco is the poster child for commercial open source that feels very much like a product. Likewise, Liferay is a commercial open source product offering operating in a similar space as uPortal. The Free Software Foundation has a pretty good explanation of this among their "Some Confusing or Loaded Words that are Worth Avoiding" page: http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/words-to-avoid.html#Commercial A clearer adjective for the opposite of "open source" is "proprietary". > The key features that differentiate uPortal from other products,
> whether commercial or open source

I think it’s important not to set the terms “commercial” and “open source” up as alternatives like this. They are orthogonal. Commercial endeavors can contribute to and generate open source or closed source software. Alfresco is the poster child for commercial open source that feels very much like a product. Likewise, Liferay is a commercial open source product offering operating in a similar space as uPortal.

The Free Software Foundation has a pretty good explanation of this among their “Some Confusing or Loaded Words that are Worth Avoiding” page:

http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/words-to-avoid.html#Commercial

A clearer adjective for the opposite of “open source” is “proprietary”.

]]> By: Jim Helwig http://jjmarkow.wordpress.com/2007/12/18/what-makes-uportal-unique/#comment-11 Jim Helwig Tue, 18 Dec 2007 15:17:08 +0000 http://jjmarkow.wordpress.com/2007/12/18/what-makes-uportal-unique/#comment-11 We originally deployed our portal using a commercial product. The main reasons we switched to uPortal were: * Ease of customizing the code and creating local modifications * Availability of community support * More control over _our_ destiny * Greater influence over product features and direction * Better poised to take advantage of higher education collaborative efforts as they emerge We saw uPortal as providing more value over the long term. We originally deployed our portal using a commercial product. The main reasons we switched to uPortal were:
* Ease of customizing the code and creating local modifications
* Availability of community support
* More control over _our_ destiny
* Greater influence over product features and direction
* Better poised to take advantage of higher education collaborative efforts as they emerge

We saw uPortal as providing more value over the long term.

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