First to Dual License Wins?

[Jason C. Wells]

Dag-Erling Smørgrav wrote:

> Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  It worked for SSH (OpenSSH
> was derived from the last free release of SSH before Tatu Ylonen went
> into business).  The reason why it didn't work for Sleepycat DB is
> probably that there were already plenty of alternatives, such as dbm,
> gdbm, ndbm, cdb, tdb etc.
> 
>> So the first party to dual license some software and add a bit of value 
>> to the code in the process basically wins.
> 
> Only if the original developer can't keep up, or they are the original
> developer, and there is no competition.

I hadn't considered how competition works into the discussion.  In your 
example there is basically a pre-existing "fork" ready for people to 
move to if their first choice ends up encumbered.

And thanks for the list of prospective databases.  I'll be looking into 
those.

Later,
Jason C. Wells