Sugar 6 Release - And the debate around being Open Source

Recently, SugarCRM announced the release of Sugar 6 version for its popular CRM application. However, the release has also seen significant amount of debate around the actual meaning of 'Open Source' and if Sugar is truly Open or just a commercial model with some 'Open' inclinations. Firstly, here's the announcement as covered by eCRM guide.

One of the main features of the new release is a revamped user interface which is made available only to the paid users of SugarCRM i.e. under the Professional and Enterprise licenses. The open source version i.e. the 'Community' version does not benefit with this new interface although it gets some parts of the other 'new' features.

Per Slashdot reports, Martin Schneider, senior director of communications at SugarCRM, said:

"Open source doesn't mean free and was never really meant to mean free. Open source runs through everything we do, it enables us to be transparent and gives customers more power. We are an open source company and it's why we're better than proprietary companies."

This triggered a string of coverage around the Sugar 6 release and SugarCRM's 'Open Source' claim, notably -

1. http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/07/13/2358224/SugarCRM-6-Released-But-Is-It-Open-Source
2. http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/sugarcrm-6-community-and-commercial-diverge/6850
3. http://ostatic.com/blog/has-sugarcrm-violated-open-source-principles
4. http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2010/07/sugarcrm-releases-new-version.php

And finally, the official company response from the CEO of SugarCRM, Larry Augustin:

http://www.crmoutsiders.com/2010/07/15/some-thoughts-on-open-from-sugarcrm-ceo-larry-augustin/

As an active user of the SugarCRM community edition for close to 3 years, I do agree with most of the difficulties faced by the community version users like

1. No Access to some of the most useful modules like Reports, Forecasts etc.
2. Problems in upgrading to higher versions with custom modules
3. No dedicated support from SugarCRM for community version

Although time, we did benefit from the partner network of SugarCRM where, we could easily locate vendors / publishers of third-party plug-ins to meet most of our requirements.

But at the very broad level, I would tend to agree with Larry's comments about his views around the 'Open' culture. The fact that SugarCRM provides complete source code to all its paid customers with freedom to deploy and modify as needed...is a very important consideration in its claim of being 'Open'. Also, Open Source is about better software development by sharing source code with your customers and/or with the wider community. However, it doesn’t stop you from charging for your work.

At the same time, am very certain that this will not be the end of the discussion around the real meaning and application of Open Source...