Hi everyone
Introduction to the above topic: Why now?
Since I joined UNA, I've always believed that paid modules had to be purchased because the community consists of collective individuals grouped as technical members who wish to make a living utilizing their skills as programmers. Hence can I add, that the core UNA product evolved from generous individuals who decided to go open source so that we could truly benefit from it and expand the possibilities by inviting others to add to what they began, creating modules, plug-ins, themes, etc.
I've read many discussions in our forum that have led me to believe and learn that open source means we can use this product free of charge, however, can we also understand that we have two categories of UNA users, namely business and technical users. Businesses or rather none-technical will have no choice but to purchase a paid module whereas Technical has the advantage to go the GitHub root.
UNA core and counterparts probably know this could happen and use, and I speculate this, how upgrades will occur. Could it mean that your GitHub downloads and uploads to your site have replications or can one perhaps just remove the version you uploaded, and upload the upgraded version and problem solved, but what happens with the user data? Does it remain or vanish when you remove the current version...
We also have Beta vs Production version.
To conclude, I often wonder how programmers respond to the idea of the gab being forced to operate under the free and open-source license agreements. I do know they are referred to as "Vendors" who can sell their products on the UNACMS marketplace. Their products are not listed on the GitHub unacms/una directory.
Please forgive me if I step over the line, or understand this. I have not yet succeeded to enable me, to buy from the una marketplace, and because I do have the technical abilities to go GitHub. It makes me a little worried.
Please clear the air for me. I am in production mode with my site and very excited, but also concerned. What happens when an upgrade occurs with GitHub modules featured as paid modules?
Thank you guys... like to hear from you.
Regards
Chris
I believe that if you uninstall any module, you will lose user data.
Additionally, I think the modules on GitHub are not as up-to-date as those in UNA CMS. The reason why the modules are kept up-to-date in UNA CMS and require payment is simple: every developer deserves to be compensated for their time. After all, they have families to support, bills to pay, and other responsibilities like school fees, etc.
Maintaining open-source projects on GitHub is, in most cases, a matter of goodwill and the developers' own choice. Open-source projects are usually provided for free, with developers offering them to the community without expecting direct financial compensation.
However, I might be wrong, so it’s best to wait for one of the UNA team members to give you a more accurate answer.
Github modules are all listed as DEV. If you do not have the technical know-how to fix the issues when they arise, installing from github will be catastrophic.
Example. You have a module from github installed. You upgrade UNA. The module in github will not update, nor will an auto update script be available. This is essentially why you pay a license, for ease of care and installation.
Also, I highly doubt you will find help here for DEV modules installed from github. So you will be on your own.
Individual developers can release software under any license they want. Even if UNA requires MIT. That is a choice of the developer. Whether UNA would remove such product, I don't know. But myself personally, would never deliver a paid product under such open license.
Anyhow, that is the simple answer to your question.
@Wise Thank you very much for this well informative reply. Well explained and thank you.
But I must say, it is very tempting to know you get that close to owning a module with its benefits to your system but never to keep it. But it gives you a good idea of how it works at least.
@PavelS Hey my friend, I almost overlooked your response. What you are saying together with @Wise's response completely clears the air for me, and hopefully, can many of our members who often wonder learn from this.
"myself personally, would never deliver a paid product under such open license."
@Wise, why? What are the long-term problems do you see?
@Alexey Mir My friend, if I may answer on behalf of and since I requested to conclude my theory on this, I hope it educates us all.
What I learned :