Open source software (OSS) is a software development model that underpins many Haufe-Lexware products and most of the technology products in our everyday lives. At Haufe-Lexware, we choose to develop and use OSS for the following reasons:
- Culture: We are fundamentally invested in sharing.
- Trust: We believe in the tight bond of trust OSS engenders between the company, our developers, and the broader community of users.
- Quality: We benefit from a community of developers who will test the software we build.
- History: History has proven that open standards win (eg. HTML, WebKit, USB, Wifi).
- Recruiting: Smart people attract other smart people.
- Portability (No Lock-in): Developers want to know that the tools and applications they make are not tied solely to the success of a particular company.
- Reuse: Let’s not reinvent the wheel!
We believe in putting powerful tools in the hands of developers. In many cases, this means open sourcing what we are working on early and often in accordance with our policy and core values. When contributing to other open source projects we strive to follow best practices and licenses set by that open source community. As a rule of thumb, we will open source, under various licenses, the following types of software:
- Generic tools: A tool, library, or other utility that solves a generic problem
- Non-core: Software not part of our core value proposition as a business
- Discretionary: Code that we collectively decide provides greater value to our community of developers than the incremental value it may provide to Haufe-Lexware if kept proprietary
- Derived work: As it is often faster to develop using open tools, we correspondingly open derived works based on those tools in adherence with the license terms and conventions.
Source: This policy was inspired by and derived from 3DR Open Source Policy