[Opensource] Maturing Framework market

[Sandra Cann]

Alex 

I also concur Expresso is more mature than its commercial counterparts as
far as I can see. I started thinking about this question of how open source
frameworks compared to commercial in terms of features and maturity while we
were preparing for our JavaOne session on frameworks. Hence we started
collecting some information at mvc2frameworks.org and invited commercial
frameworks to participate. 

I see the architectural framework market in a shakeout period. I think what
happens to a market when open source products are more mature than their
commercial counterparts (I propose due to the fast evolution of the software
with the open source community development process) is that commercial
framework companies cannot survive and the company disappears or shifts
emphasis to service. I propose that we can see that happening now.  

Here are a few very recent developments in the framework arena that you can
check out on theserverside.com. 
	- altoweb has closed it doors (out of business)
	- realMethods opened sourced its framework (GPL so no good for
commercial dev) - with some less than favourable comments on the code. 
	
In other news I talked to the wakesoft folks at JavaOne and was told they
had then only 12 customers. In these recession days how much of a concern is
it to consumers regarding their continued presense in the market I don't
know? As an aside how can software really be stable/evolved enough when only
used in such a small sampling? 

A large user base is why an open source framework like Expresso evolves more
quickly, gets tested in more environments and is more mature. That's hard to
beat.  

While there have been in the last year many newcomers to the framework arena
they don't have as much to offer as Expresso. Expresso has evolved and
matured since its development began in 1996!!! - that's a lot of experience
gained - and its large user base means it will continue to technologically
evolve to the needs of the users. And like a snowball rolling down a
mountain, a large user base expotentially grows as long as we continue to be
responsive to the user community's needs. Expresso users also have
confidence that by using the architectural framework with the largest market
share, their products are more stable now and in the future.

Well that's how I am seeing things. What do you think?

Sandra