Remove connection limits

Hello,

I didn’t see in the rules that I can’t post this suggestion, nor did I find a similar suggestion, but I have to admit I’m almost nervous to post it. However, I think this needs to be said.

OnlyOffice’s release has a connection limit of 20 connections. However, it is also released under a copyleft open-source license. This means not only is it possible to for users to remove the limit, but we are legally obligated to release this modified code circumventing the limit under the same license.

Not only that, but convenient releases of OnlyOffice without the connection limit may be outdated compared to the standard release, subjecting users to all of the issues associated with outdated software (security vulnerabilities for example).

There are yet more issues with this:

  • OnlyOffice now has a financial incentive to make the build complex and obscure to prevent users from running the build, which would stifle contributions from the community (I don’t mean to imply that this has happened, just that there’s a reasonable argument to suggest it could happen)
  • Contributors might see this as a “bait-and-switch” approach to open source software, making them less likely to contribute to OnlyOffice and more likely to seek alternatives

I understand monetization is hard, but I wanted to throw my two cents in.

1 Like

Dear KernelDeimos,

Thank you for your post and for being interested in our project.

Let me clarify: ONLYOFFICE is available under an open source license - AGPL v3, as well as in the form of a commercial product.

The main goal of this approach is to provide the opportunity to use our project to as many people as possible. Among the users of our open source version there are many private users, small companies, schools, NGOs, even developers, those who ove open source. Usually, the capability of the open source version is more than enough for small teams.
In addition, private users can always use our desktop document editors (fully open source and free), free mobile versions, or participate in the development of the product to the extent possible and get a free version for our community using the options listed here or by suggesting your own.

The commercial version has a more complex architecture designed for large companies and heavy workloads, and also includes support from our technical specialists. But still the same feature set.

Still, these are quite different audiences.