coreBOS OpenSource comes to an end. After 9 years of an incredible journey, the time has come to change direction.

If I look back, I can see the first version, the conception of coreBOS in 1998 (or so, far away and a little blurry now). That first code already had the idea of making things customizable and adaptable to create the perfect software for any company. At that time, I was alone (hmmm recurring word in my life), the internet wasn't what it is today and open source was still an emerging buzzword. So it took me 5-6 years to land in the vtiger CRM universe and find an application that I could take where my coreBOS vision was. A lot of effort, a LOT of effort and sacrifice later, I had made myself comfortable with that code base, but the inexistent community didn't want to take the product where my vision was. I tried, really hard, but the people there consistently ignored me to the point where I decided to fork vtiger CRM, apply all the magic we were already giving our clients, and start coreBOS.

Fast forward to today, I, and the people who believed in this project, have created a software platform that is very close to the vision I had. A really powerful, customizable, and adaptable framework that can help most companies.

The curious fact about that is that we have started to see adoption by software houses, which makes sense as that is what the software is for, but we fear the same situation Elastic Search had with Amazon. That threat and the difficulty, or direct fallacy of an open source business model that could sustain the project economically has taken us to continue the development under a much more strict license and close the software to give us legal power.

The new license is closed and proprietary. The code is now owned by a company and any rights to resell or distribute it must be negotiated with that company. Further development effort will be closed and accessible only to partners and collaborators. I have negotiated a special license agreement for existing community members and standalone users who have supported the project up to today, and the new company is founded on the idea of reverting all the effort invested in the next years back into the open source world after some years. We are making a bet to see how it turns out. Let's see what happens

You can reach out to me for the full details of the license, or if you have any questions.

The imminent future isn't going to change much, I'm still the project manager of the software and the development team is the same (and growing), the current community members are shielded so they can stick around as much as they consider necessary, maybe even could be good for them. For example, now we can enforce exclusivity for them,... who knows?

Farther into the future is hard to see, with way too many variables, and uncertainties,... let's try to enjoy the ride and see where it takes us.

I have probably already contacted you or your reseller may have done so, but if you have any questions or doubts reach out to me. We will discuss the best options available. We have your back.

Before writing this post and taking this decision I wrote a letter to some community members, to inform them and get their feedback. What I received in return was enormous gratitude and a bunch of friends who were happy for me. I guess, in the end, that was what it was all about, helping each other and making the people you touch a little happier than when they met you. All of you made me happier! It has been incredible. Thank you!

You know the saying:

coreBOS is dead. Long live coreBOS!

See you on the other side.

Cover Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash