Fork (software development): Difference between revisions

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In [[proprietary software]], the copyright is usually held by the employing entity, not by the individual software developers. Proprietary code is thus more commonly forked when the owner needs to develop two or more versions, such as a [[Window (computing)|windowed]] version and a [[command line interface|command line]] version, or versions for differing operating systems, such as a [[word processor]] for [[IBM PC]] compatible machines and [[Apple Macintosh|Macintosh]] computers. Generally, such internal forks will concentrate on having the same look, feel, data format, and behavior between platforms so that a user familiar with one can also be productive or share documents generated on the other. This is almost always an economic decision to generate a greater [[market share]] and thus pay back the associated extra development costs created by the fork.

A notable proprietary fork not of this kind is the many varieties of proprietary [[Unix]]—almost all derived from AT&T Unix under license and all called "Unix", but increasingly mutually incompatible.<ref name=moen>[http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Licensing_and_Law/forking.html Fear of forking] {{webarchive|url=https://wwwweb.webcitationarchive.org/6DpEiIMTm?url=web/20121217044712/http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Licensing_and_Law/forking.html |date=2117 JanuaryDecember 20132012 }} - An essay about forking in [[free software]] projects, by Rick Moen</ref> ''See'' [[UNIX wars]].

The [[BSD licenses]] permit forks to become proprietary software, and some say{{who|date=November 2011}} that commercial incentives thus make proprietisation almost inevitable. Examples include [[macOS]] (based on the proprietary [[NeXTSTEP]] and the open source [[FreeBSD]]), [[Cedega (software)|Cedega]] and [[CrossOver]] (proprietary forks of [[Wine (software)|Wine]], though CrossOver tracks Wine and contributes considerably), EnterpriseDB (a fork of [[PostgreSQL]], adding Oracle compatibility features<ref>[http://www.enterprisedb.com EnterpriseDB] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061113052033/http://www.enterprisedb.com/ |date=13 November 2006 }}</ref>), Supported PostgreSQL with their proprietary ESM storage system,<ref>[http://www.fastware.com.au/docs/FujitsuSupportedPostreSQLWhitePaperV1_02.pdf Fujitsu Supported PostgreSQL] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060820144738/http://fastware.com.au/docs/FujitsuSupportedPostreSQLWhitePaperV1_02.pdf |date=20 August 2006 }}</ref> and Netezza's<ref>[http://www.netezza.com/media/2004/Weblog.htm Netezza] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061113210650/http://www.netezza.com/media/2004/Weblog.htm |date=13 November 2006 }}</ref> proprietary highly scalable derivative of PostgreSQL. Some of these vendors contribute back changes to the community project, while some keep their changes as their own competitive advantages.