This article addresses the question of why we chose the dual licensing model for the TwoDesk Component Library.
There are two major reasons that we decided to go with the dual licensing model:
First, we feel a debt of gratitude towards the open source community in general. We use a number of open source tools internally, but have not been able to give back to those projects in any way. We use Linux for an internal application and file server, SugarCRM as our customer database, and Subversion for source control, just to name a few. We feel that this is our way of giving back to the open source developers that have given so much to us.
The second reason that we have made the component library open source is historical. For the most part, these components are not our original work. They were written by Lasse Karlsen over the course of several years from 1997 to 2002. While Lasse was writing and maintaining the components, he released versions from time to time as open source, though under a more restrictive license than the GPL. In the summer of 2004, we purchased the component library from Lasse. We decided that we did not want to alienate the many open source developers that are already using Lasse's components. We believe that by allowing the component library to be used under the GPL, we can best serve the original intent of Lasse's work.
Again, there are two major reasons. The first is simple: We need to make money. TwoDesk Software Company has bills to pay, paychecks to distribute, and more ideas to carry out. None of this happens unless somebody buys something from us.
The second, more subtle, reason is that the GPL is quite restrictive when it comes to commercial software. We want the component library to be available to all developers under a license that is appropriate for the way they will use our components.
Yes, we believe so. Frankly, we're very curious to see how this licensing model works. It's foriegn to the VCL components market, but it has been successful in other markets, and we think it will be successful for us as well. We are confident, however, that we will profit from this product.