Comment on NetLock RMM (OSS) released linux & macos agent
ferngully@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
This does look great. I’d love to see a free “home lab” license option without having to sign up for something or create an account. The information on your pricing page could use more detail on the “Did you know? You can start with a free open-source membership through our Members Portal” section.
0x101@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
Yes, I’ll update the website with more details about the open-source membership. I call it that because it allows users to easily build and package the required files themselves.
Since this is my full-time job and the RMM takes a huge amount of time, I’m trying to find a way for companies to financially support it, without restricting the homelab community or locking core features behind a closed-source paywall. I’d love to hear any ideas on how to achieve that in the long run.
I wrote a blog post explaining why the unsigned packages aren’t on GitHub (link). However, anyone can still build and package everything without needing a members portal account.
Of course, I realize that most people won’t go through the hassle of compiling and packaging everything themselves, it’s just not convenient. Initially, I expected more criticism for this approach, but I’ve only received a few questions about it. Technically, you could even enter imaginary information, sign in, generate the packages, download them, and self-host them with the members portal API disabled.
ferngully@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
I think your approach to monetizing towards companies is great and you should totally do that. As someone that works with an RMM everyday and I’ve tried nearly all the big box ones. They all suck. So seeing something new in this space is great. Especially if it works.
I think restricting the home lab level to 1-3 sites could be a viable path? Maybe even license agreement stating not to be used for business without subscription (you might already do this, I didn’t read the license)? I’d expect that to be hard to enforce though.
I did read a bit about the self compiling and think that’s a good idea and totally could have signed up with an alias email. But for me, when I want to test something I want it to be a quick docker/k3s deploy. Could you publish your docker containers for home lab, maybe restricting bare metal installs to a license would deter companies from installing due to most in house IT wanting things on VMs or bare metal.