Comments for CMSimple
Re: CMSimple Open Source?
I have realized that AGPL is not OSI-approved. I don't know if anybody here is taliban, but I did chose to follow this statement at opensource.org: "we still encourage use of the term "Open Source" to mean conformance to the OSD. ". Therefore I cleaned up a month ago, and the only place at cmsimple.dk (besides in Support form) you'll find the term "Open Source" is this: "Open Source enthusiasts are also welcome to use and modify and distribute CMSimple under the given licence". Maybe I should get out of freshmeat.net as well?
Price for remove license isn't USD 142, but 72.00 - templates are in the distribution. Whatever a designer charge for his templates is up to him.
I do not feel any sympathy for copyright violations. Why shouldn't I keep track of the use of my script and care about my copyrights? Commercial licenses have made it possible for me to keep this project alive for years - supporting it and improving it.
There has been some code cleanup of parts of the script in last release making more easy for other developers to make modifications, but this still need improvement.
CMSimple Open Source?
CMSimple was recently (this week) withdrawn from an open source CMS site (opensourcecms.com) after a flush of criticism from members about its obfuscated code, security vulnerabilities and most pointedly, its licensing scheme relative to the GPL and the author’s approach to protecting his copyrights. The author whined about the criticism for a few posts, and then the script was gone. Then he whined some more about the criticism on his own support forum (www.cmsimple.dk/forum/...) where a sympathetic crowd commiserated with him about how wonderful his script is and how mean and unreasonable and stupid those members of the “open source Taliban” truly are.
At the end of all that criticism and the resultant whining and commiserating, some fundamental issues remain unanswered.
To be fair, CMSimple does implement some rather clever ideas. It is tiny, has a robust user community, and enables novices to get a site up and running in just a few minutes – the only skill necessary being the ability to FTP the script to a web server that supports PHP. All in all, it is probably a reasonable solution for those who want to put up a small web site without a database, or any coding.
The tradeoff for that utility is flexibility. The beginner programmer has virtually no chance of modifying the code [the code is the worst I’ve ever seen. It is indecipherable. One hopes that the author simply lacks the programming skills to write maintainable open source code. A darker explanation is that he doesn’t want anyone to understand it – hoping to benefit exclusively from the commercial opportunities it implies]. Even templating will prove a challenge for the novice.
The market for whom CMSimple is targeted will find itself at the mercy of the script’s author, and a small platoon of plug-in and template developers – all of whom will insist that you either leave their obstreperous copyright notices in view, or pay them a fee. The kicker is that they literally cruise the net (search) looking for violations of their copyright. Any violators are harassed and threatened. A page on the author’s site is devoted to a list of violators. He threatens legal action. Its mostly bluster. [good luck getting such a nonsense case docketed in an American court] but it intimidates some. In the meantime, users who want to make their site more secure, or look more professional will pony up the $144.00 USD to remove the link from the site and template.
I don’t think anyone has any problem with the author selling his script. Certainly I don’t. The problem is the violence this author does to the spirit and intent of open source software. I wish the author of CMSimple would familiarize himself with the history of Linus Torvalds (Linux) and Richard Stallman (GNU). Selling free software is a good thing, but it should live up to the goals of open source software. Code from one project should be available for use in another. Software should be like speech. Every problem I have with CMSimple would evaporate if the author would refrain from referring to the indiscernible script as “open source”.
In the meantime, I would recommend passing on this script and if you need a great CMS script that is small, doesn’t require a database and if offered by an author that does NOT try to squeeze a buck out of the world’s perception of “open source”, then by all means have a look at PHP-Update ( www.php-update.co.uk/ ). Another GREAT choice is sNews (a complete CMS in a single file) It’s a great little script. Both are VERY will written and you can actually learn something from the code. You’ll have a great website, and you’ll be a better programmer in the end. You’ll also feel better knowing you didn’t benefit the oily under-belly of open source software.
Re: The license
> Do I have to
> keep the link on every page, or can I
> add all the needed info on some about
> page? And what happens if I write a
> template from scratch?
You need the link on every page - also when from scratch. Elsewise you may pay for a license, which supports the development of the system.
The license
I think that this section 2 (d) is pretty interesting. But I have 2 questions for the author: Do I have to keep the link on every page, or can I add all the needed info on some about page? And what happens if I write a template from scratch?
Not that I am against sharing a template or leaving a small link... just want to know how far this section 2 (d) goes.
Re: Source code is voluntarily obfuscated
> the fastest, most effective, most
> extraordinary programs are written by
> programmer can 'hold' the entire
> codebase in their brain at one time.
>
> A trick for doing this is to reduce the
> physical size of the code, to maximize
> the amount of logic viewable on the
> screen at one time. no space,varbls w no
> sz. sqz tgthr. th bran s finte. max it
> out.
>
> in less than 80k peter harteg is
> creating a masterpiece. do look through
> the php code - then see the javascript
> it generates. ever so fascinating.
>
>
>
>
>
Bull-oney. Crap code is crap code and this is crap code. Once this guy walks away from this code for a year it will be unsupportable by anyone including the original coder. This stuff works pretty well, but with the license and the amatuer hackjob of code I'd pass for anything but the most trivial of sites.
Re: License
% I also get the
impression that if I contribute changes
back to this project some entitiy is
selling a for-profit product based on
this contributed work? That can't be
right.%
That is not right. It must be released under AGPL, but you hold your own copyrights and may make an additional download link requirement to your material.
ok
Quite nice and easy to use.
The licensing scheme is a bit weird.
I personally have no problem with leaving a link in but the unreadable code makes it difficult to add functionality.
I use it anyway and the WYSIWYG interface actually works and the whole thing does not rely on an SQL database.
Main reason for using this CMS was that it provided what I need: simple on-the-fly management, central location where the whole site data is kept, no usage of an SQL database, templating and most important a WYSIWYG interface for quick additions. Although I normally use normal text editors for HTML, it is useful for small and fast additions from anywhere.
One Of The Sweetest
Aside from a few little qwirky things here and there, this is one of the easiest CMS programs I've found. I needed something that even my father could get down and dirty with (he would still be using DOS if I let him). Another praise is that I'm running multiple instances of CMSimple (one for everybody in the fam) on a lonely little PII-400mhz BSD box off of a cable modem and it is just speedy.
License
What is up with this license? I can't understand how a license violation would occur on this product for removing the 'powered-by' link? I also get the impression that if I contribute changes back to this project some entitiy is selling a for-profit product based on this contributed work? That can't be right. Seemed like a prefect fit, until reading the site and attitude of this developer.
Dutch translation
I work at MeMO vzw, a non-profit organisation using Joomla for own websites.
We worked on e-coop for 3 years (www.e-coop.be) and on a guide on 'people and environmentily-friendly undertaking'
We start to promote CMSimple to little organisations and undertakers.
We work on a pdf-book, translating information about CMSimple.
Anyone interested helping us, interested in the manual?
Patriek