[olivermuty]

would be cool if they published this as oss

[piker]

Thanks for the kind words, and I have given it serious thought.

It's definitely not impossible in the future.

I just don't think there is enough interest right now in contributing to the underlying tech without generalizing it so much that it basically becomes an inferior LibreOffice.

Instead, the business model for Tritium is to give away the niche legal product for free to the community, but charge commercial users who need more granular control over its network activity, etc. This gives smaller start-ups, law offices and in-house shops a chance to benefit from the niche features while reserving for more demanding organizations to express an interest in and benefit from advanced features.

[IshKebab]

I think you should just charge everyone. I can't imagine there are many people in the community who would have a use for it but aren't professionals who could pay money for it.

You could make a special exemption for non-profits and public defenders.

Giving it away for free just creates potential for freeloaders.

Great product idea by the way! Hard to believe lawyers have gone without this for so long.

[olivermuty]

By «this» I meant the docx parts, not the rest ;)

[maverwa]

or - if feasible - extend the existing crate instead of creating a new one.

[piker]

I thought about that as well, but it's really just so core to every aspect of the product that Tritium needs to own it 100%. We just don't have the capacity to take a tradeoff that is favorable to the broader use case. I highlighted this issue in particular but there were other places where Tritium's needs diverged from the docx_rs approach. (e.g., dealing with references)