Why is Ubuntu One close sourced ?

Asked by Robbt

This is my main question. It's pretty simple. It'd be cool to have an honest answer. It just seems like if it were open source people could contribute and say do things like port it to work on other operating systems, which in turn could make you money. I could see a huge market for a virtual drive that people could use to share their files between their operating systems and on different computers. But as long as Ubuntu One stays closed source it's unlikely to happen. Is Ubuntu One closed source ?

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Elliot Murphy (statik) said :
#1

Some major pieces of the backend are closed source, specifically the
website that handles accounts and billing and the file sharing server.
Some important pieces of the backend are open source, like couchdb,
funambol, and rabbitmq.

All of the client code that runs on your computer is open source, and
this includes everything needed to port Ubuntu One to run on other
operating systems. If that's something you are interested in, let me
know, I can point out the non-portable bits and some changes that
would make things more portable.

--
Elliot Murphy

On Nov 22, 2009, at 8:23 PM, Robbt
<email address hidden> wrote:

> New question #91324 on Ubuntu One Servers:
> https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntuone-servers/+question/91324
>
> This is my main question. It's pretty simple. It'd be cool to have
> an honest answer. It just seems like if it were open source people
> could contribute and say do things like port it to work on other
> operating systems, which in turn could make you money. I could see a
> huge market for a virtual drive that people could use to share their
> files between their operating systems and on different computers.
> But as long as Ubuntu One stays closed source it's unlikely to
> happen. Is Ubuntu One closed source ?
>
> --
> You received this question notification because you are an answer
> contact for Ubuntu One Servers.
>

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