If Pentaho is Open Source, can I just use it?

open-sourcepentaho

I see that Pentaho wants to charge me for their software. How can I get to the underlying Open Source software for dashboards to see what it can do without having to deal with Pentaho marketing folks?

Best Solution

Most commercial open source editions have a community edition that the community hacks on if the license permits it*. Pentaho is no different from them and has a community edition.

In these cases, the "community edition" is not the same thing as the commercial product you would buy. You may find a lot of the gloss and even some, if not a lot of the features are missing. There's no support. Yadda yadda yadda. You get the picture.

*As others have noted, not all "open source" apps need to distribute the source code in the same way as, a GPL application would. Open source, in rawest forms, just means as a licensed user, you get to see the source code.

Related Solutions

C# – What are your favorite extension methods for C#? (codeplex.com/extensionoverflow)

public static bool In<T>(this T source, params T[] list)
{
  if(null==source) throw new ArgumentNullException("source");
  return list.Contains(source);
}

Allows me to replace:

if(reallyLongIntegerVariableName == 1 || 
    reallyLongIntegerVariableName == 6 || 
    reallyLongIntegerVariableName == 9 || 
    reallyLongIntegerVariableName == 11)
{
  // do something....
}

and

if(reallyLongStringVariableName == "string1" || 
    reallyLongStringVariableName == "string2" || 
    reallyLongStringVariableName == "string3")
{
  // do something....
}

and

if(reallyLongMethodParameterName == SomeEnum.Value1 || 
    reallyLongMethodParameterName == SomeEnum.Value2 || 
    reallyLongMethodParameterName == SomeEnum.Value3 || 
    reallyLongMethodParameterName == SomeEnum.Value4)
{
  // do something....
}

With:

if(reallyLongIntegerVariableName.In(1,6,9,11))
{
      // do something....
}

and

if(reallyLongStringVariableName.In("string1","string2","string3"))
{
      // do something....
}

and

if(reallyLongMethodParameterName.In(SomeEnum.Value1, SomeEnum.Value2, SomeEnum.Value3, SomeEnum.Value4)
{
  // do something....
}

Code signing certificate for open-source projects?

For open source developers, Certum provides code signing certificates ~~for free~~*

Just enter "open source developer" in the "company" field when you request the certificate. That's it.

Link to open source code signing certificates is here

[*] Starting 2016, the Open Source Code Signing certificate is no longer available for free. It is now a paid only service.