Let me see if I've got this right: you want to open source your code so you can get a bunch of free bug fixes, QA testing, and positive press, and what you're offering in exchange is a crippled, deployment-size-limited version of your package for small teams and other open source projects?
Thanks, but no thanks.
It sounds to me like you simply don't have the resources you need to develop your system, and want to get a bunch of free labor from the OSS community without really opening your code.
If you're going to go open source, you're still going to need folks to do documentation, QA, and marketing. You're still going to have to plan and manage releases. Hell, you're going to have to fight an uphill battle convincing some managers they should pay you for anything when the base product is "free."
Plus, you're going to have a community just itching to fork your product and put you out of business at the first sign of you putting your bottom line ahead of their interests.
Do yourself a favor, and either scale back the scope of your project so it's something you can handle, or find the resources to staff up and finish the damn thing. Then decide if you want to open source the code base. Just don't expect something for nothing.
Thanks, but no thanks.
It sounds to me like you simply don't have the resources you need to develop your system, and want to get a bunch of free labor from the OSS community without really opening your code.
If you're going to go open source, you're still going to need folks to do documentation, QA, and marketing. You're still going to have to plan and manage releases. Hell, you're going to have to fight an uphill battle convincing some managers they should pay you for anything when the base product is "free."
Plus, you're going to have a community just itching to fork your product and put you out of business at the first sign of you putting your bottom line ahead of their interests.
Do yourself a favor, and either scale back the scope of your project so it's something you can handle, or find the resources to staff up and finish the damn thing. Then decide if you want to open source the code base. Just don't expect something for nothing.