Closed‑source vs source‑available vs open‑source — which model makes the most sense for small tools? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 day ago by mietkiewski_dev@lemmy.ml to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

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I’m trying to understand which licensing model makes the most sense for small personal tools — not as products, but as experiments to learn how to distribute software before working on a larger project.

To explore this, I released a tiny utility as source‑available rather than fully open‑source. The code is visible, but the license is restrictive. GitHub here works only as a landing page, not as a full FOSS repo.

Here’s the project I’m using as a test case (not promoting it — just showing the model I’m experimenting with): https://github.com/Mietkiewski/MPomidoro

My goal isn’t to push the tool itself — it’s just a way to understand how people interpret these categories:

Is source‑available meaningfully different from closed‑source?

Do you expect small tools to default to open‑source?

Does hosting something on GitHub imply a FOSS expectation?

For someone planning a larger ecosystem later, which model is the most reasonable starting point?

I’m genuinely trying to understand how open‑source communities see these distinctions before I commit to a long‑term direction.

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[-] mietkiewski_dev@lemmy.ml 2 points 9 hours ago

For this project I’m mainly testing distribution models. My only restriction is redistribution — people can read and modify the code for personal use. I’m also cautious about someone copying or commercializing it, so this is mostly a learning exercise for me.

[-] wiki_me@lemmy.ml 1 points 10 minutes ago

For this project I’m mainly testing distribution models

What do you expect to learn from those so called tests? (no offence)

The big questions in closed vs open is that there are different scenarios :

for closed source -> less competitor -> more users -> more money -> more investment in the project -> better product.

for open source -> more users want to use it and contribute to it -> better software -> more users -> more potential for making money.

The problem is that for the outcomes you want to track (more money or better software). there are so many variable involved that influence those outcomes so it's hard to deduce that the license is improving the outcomes or making them worst.

[-] Alvaro 1 points 7 hours ago

Once you limit what kind of usage people can do with it (ie no commercial use) you are entering the source available section and not so much open source.

Usually in open source, when the creators are worried about commercial use, they use a license that enforces open sourcing any derived works, which means that any commercial use will only happen without any modification or with contributions to the community. The revenue model in such cases is usually tech support or an upstream closed source version.

For open source licenses you can checkout Open license helper

But what you are describing is either source available or closed source.