Business Success with Open Source

Choose a Release Style

In ​Styles of Project Releases​, you learned about the four most common styles of FOSS project releases:

• Throw it over the wall
• Release but retain control
• Release with open governance and community
• Donate to a FOSS foundation

Whereas the question of whether to release a project at all largely relies on the constraints of strategy alignment and leadership support, the question of which release style to choose leans strongly on three other constraints: budget, time, and skills. Let’s use a 2x2 again, but this time it’ll be a bit more complex. You can find the 2x2 diagram in the appendices at ​Choose a Release Style​. Here’s how you can use it to help you decide which release style to use:

1. From the three constraints—budget, ...