I am building an Application Performance Monitoring (APM) tool which is going to be Open Source. It is very early stage now, just started yesterday so can not provide any link. I hope I can make a alpha release soon!
The reason of not having a open source alternative of CAD is not having proper domain knowledge. The people who have the domain knowledge are not taking that intiative that the early stage software engineers took.
> So you may need to refine your goals a little: Do you want to (a) fill a gap where no viable OSS exists, or (b) help OSS dethrone proprietary software in some category, e.g. Photoshop?
Filling a gap where not OSS exists. I was trying to understand the gap. Like, many people are saying there are huge gap in CAD technologies, but this can be only solved by the persons who have domain knowledge, like Civil Engineers. Unless the people having the domain knowledge does not agree to volunteer or take the inatiative, no one will see any progress in that field.
> I think there's some wisdom in the notion that the best OSS project idea is one that solves a problem you have
Yeah, it is true. Like I am facing about a problem with APM that there are no or open core alternative of proprietary. Untill this post, I did not know other people are also thinking about its need.
Your article is really interesting! I did not know about Aspera before reading it.
I did not have any idea that changing protocol will have this amount of benefit in data transmission. Also amused that no one have not solved it in Open Source world.
The worst part is that Aspera is actually a proprietary fork of a Free Software project that IBM purchased and then strong-armed institutions into using until it became an industry standard.
CAD software like AutoCad does not have any good Open Source alternative. As it is mostly used by Civil Engineers, I think when the Civil Engineers will motivated by the Open Source manifesto, they will approach making soemthing good alternative of CAD software!
CAD is far from just something for civil engineers.
It's used by mechanical engineers. It's what you use to design an engine. Good CAD software hooks up to the inventory system so that parts can be ordered automatically.
It's used by electrical engineers. Special CAD packages exist for integrated circuit design, magnetics, and antennas. For example a motor might contain coils of wire, permanent magnets, air, and various components through which magnetic field lines are directed. Eddy currents must be analysed.
It's used by chemical engineers. Pipes and tanks and pumps get laid out. Stuff like water hammer must be accounted for, except maybe the fluid is poisonous and explosive. Expansion joints for thermal stress and pressure changes might be important. Stress on welds must be calculated.
That is really True. The APM world does not have any good open source alternative, Elastic APM is ok, but I think it is open core, not open source. Sentry is trying to build one, but maybe that will not be also OSI approved license.
