Auto-update & 'Pro' Versions

[cosmo666]

I just got interrupted by an unsolicited advisory that an add-on I installed a little while ago had been updated, followed by an advertisement for their 'Pro' version. When I originally started looking at Palemoon, I'm pretty sure each add-on had a check box which allowed the user to accept or decline automatic updates. Apparently thats gone now, and I'd like to suggest it should be restored. In the meantime, I've marked the add-on for removal, and when I'm finished with the work I'm doing, I'll restart Pale Moon, and they're promotional item will be gone (along with any others they may be offering).

Re: "Pro' versions...

...are not open-source software. While the vast majority of them started out as open-source (where the 'creators' started out using code someone else created), the 'pro-software-paradigm' is what is known generally in the business world as: 'bait-and-switch'. Its a toxic business practice, and it exploits the amazing work that honest open-source developers do, and freely share with everyone else. The toxic reality of 'pro' software (and all commercial software), is that day you install whatever free version they're offering, you begin a learning process where you discover that which has been left out, and the fixes for which they expect to be paid. And every time you do, you're validating a parasitic form of capitalism which, in my view and many others, has no place on the Internet.

Bottom-line: I strongly urge those in charge of the add-ons website to exclude developers who are using it to give away 'hobbleware', in order to promote commercial software.

[Moonchild]

Re: "Pro' versions...
...are not open-source software.

There is no requirement for extensions to the browser, or for listing on the add-ons site for that matter, to be Open Source at all. Closed source and/or commercial extensions are welcome; although Open Source licenses are (strongly) encouraged, we do not require everything to be "free"/"libre", nor do we require developers to work for free or restrict their revenue to donations only or similar. If they want to offer a "Pro" version and promote that in their free version, then that is perfectly fine -- it will be self-regulating anyway; if they go over the top with their promotions, people will stop using their software (like you have).

Also, of note, most if not all Open Source licenses do not allow re-licensing of the software under a closed license at a later point in time, because, simply put, the contributed code changes under open source development are not the property of the extension publisher. So this "bait and switch" you are talking about won't apply here.

[New Tobin Paradigm]

Moonchild is correct, once open source always open source.

However, at least for the MPL.. It does allow for a concept known as a larger work.. In this case, the base free and open source version can be used as part of a greater whole that is not free and open source provided that MPL covered code on a file level is still provided upon request.

So I could make an extension that had a free and pro version where the covered code was modified to execute non-covered code code from a different file or vice versa but I would only have to disclose changes to the previously covered code but not the new non-free code.

Other oss licenses have different requirements.

EDIT: What extension are we talking about?

[Scribe]

Clicking on 'More' next to each extension on the extensions page, gives an option to control automatic updates - at least it's there on all mine, which are a mix PM and AMO ones. There is also the global gear wheel button at the top of the page.

[New Tobin Paradigm]

Whatever extension the OP got a notification from is doing it on its own it has NOTHING to do with the Add-ons Manager and Update Service...

[coffeebreak]

When I originally started looking at Palemoon, I'm pretty sure each add-on had a check box which allowed the user to accept or decline automatic updates. Apparently thats gone now

As Scribe posted, it's there.

Open the Add-ons Manager; click More for additional options; next to "Automatic Updates" select the radio button for "Off":