[AccessD] Hamachi

John Colby jwcolby at ColbyConsulting.com
Fri Jan 6 13:29:14 CST 2006


Well... 

AFAICT this is not open source.
The "Beta program" does not have 800k beta users, the beta program has been
downloaded 800k times.  I downloaded it but I do not consider myself a beta
tester, just a (potential) user of a product still in beta.

Still, 800k downloads all by itself says a lot about the product.

As for all the rest, yup.  It certainly looks to me like a stable product,
with a knowledgeable developer behind the wheels, with a valid business
strategy for survival.  

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com 


-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Ken Ismert
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 2:13 PM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Hamachi

 
Jim,

<<John> This is a ... 0.9.9.9 product>

<<Jim> ... I found out a long time ago that it just doesn't pay to be on
that bleeding edge > 

Certainly, for commercial, Closed Source code, this is a wise strategy.

But I just want to point out that in Open Source, versions actually Mean
Something. 1.0 for an Open Source product means that the writers say 'this
works'. Their reputation and credibility are on the line. Thus, you see Open
Source projects move very slowly to 1.0, with lots of public testing. 

Think of it: this guy has an 800,000 user beta program on this product.
That's larger than the beta team that worked on Windows 2000, IIRC. 

Typically, a 1.0 Open Source product is stable, well tested, and works in a
real sense of the word. 

Regarding the users who say things like "I had to open all UDP ports on my
firewall to get it to work", that sounds a lot like network newbies flailing
away. Of course, turning off the firewall would get nearly anything to work.
The Hamachi author freely admits that the free version will work in 97% of
cases. The other 3% will require his "pro" version, that requires dedicated
(but still just as secure) third-party connection hosting (and thus requires
a fee). That's his business model, and that's how he intends to keep on
fixing and expanding the product. 

-Ken
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