Community based support

Sophos developers are still looking at solving problems like Windows 10 updates breaking the product and supporting changes to browsers and document apps. They will continue working on this in parallel to other responsibilities.

We are still working on Open Sourcing the code but not every detail has been finalized, including how this will be supported. Sophos' role will likely diminish in the future once this happens.

Akhilesh@Sophos said:

Sophos developers are still looking at solving problems like Windows 10 updates breaking the product and supporting changes to browsers and document apps. They will continue working on this in parallel to other responsibilities.

We are still working on Open Sourcing the code but not every detail has been finalized, including how this will be supported. Sophos' role will likely diminish in the future once this happens.

First, thanks for the reply even if it comes late considering the thread was opened over a month ago. You know, better late than never.

About Open Sourcing Sandboxie: at first sight someone may consider that should be something as simple as zipping all files and making it available for download.

Exactly, what details are delaying the release of the source code? And I mean specific considerations, not vague things as we are used to receive as reply.

Regards.

Akhilesh@Sophos said:

Sophos developers are still looking at solving problems like Windows 10 updates breaking the product and supporting changes to browsers and document apps. They will continue working on this in parallel to other responsibilities.

We are still working on Open Sourcing the code but not every detail has been finalized, including how this will be supported. Sophos' role will likely diminish in the future once this happens.

First, thanks for the reply even if it comes late considering the thread was opened over a month ago. You know, better late than never.

About Open Sourcing Sandboxie: at first sight someone may consider that should be something as simple as zipping all files and making it available for download.

Exactly, what details are delaying the release of the source code? And I mean specific considerations, not vague things as we are used to receive as reply.

Regards.

Hello everybody.

I'm also sad to find out that Sandboxie will not have Sophos' support anymore. I bought a lifetime license a few years ago and I use it a lot: all softwares I can sandbox are done so and I have a few sandboxies in use.

About Open Sourcing Sandboxie: at first sight someone may consider that should be something as simple as zipping all files and making it available for download.

Exactly, what details are delaying the release of the source code? And I mean specific considerations, not vague things as we are used to receive as reply.

lol that's far from that!

First, it's not just zip "all files" and publish it. Source code needs to be published on a version control tool, preferably Subversion, which is the best of them all.

Git has been getting popularity, but github is full of pirated content which indicates where such popularity goes, and it's more complicated to use. M$ TFS is a kid's toy, not a professional tool.

Second, a proprietary code has some liberties that a open source doesn't. In example they can buy proprietary libs under a license that allows them to add that lib to their software. If that license doesn't allow the lib to have its source opened, or be used on a open source software, they won't be allowed to open their software. There are also some licenses aimed for open source like GPL that don't allow a software distributed under them to have proprietary software embedded, as this proprietary lib won't allow the sofware to be fully edited and compiled.

Third, the Sandboxie brand most probably won't be opened, so they need to move the brand's text and image to a isolated place so that it can be easily removed and changed when somebody wanna fork the software.

I believe they are analysing which license they will use and reviewing the code to find anything that won't comply with that license.

Also note that Sophos will still be the owner of the software. Distributing a software under a license aimed at open source doesn't mean they are giving the software away. The owner of the software has some rights that aren't passed by open source aimed licenses.

That being said, I'm also worried they end up not open sourcing it, specially if they find something that blocks that, and it becomes an abandonware.

I'm also confused. Was Sophos always the owner of Sandboxie, or was Sandboxie sold to them?!

They announce they will release Sandboxie open source and stop giving support.

Is that legal?

Should not they stop giving support after releasing the source code, not before?

This is something I'm deeply interested in knowing. I have a lifetime license. I don't mind the software with its full features to be released for free now, but I wanna know about my support. I paid for the software to be maintained and to have premium support when needed, not to receive its source code and have to maintain it myself!

Anyway. They already said that once Sandboxie is open sourced their support will be minimal. This means we have to build a community. We must find out what platform it's developed over, and find users who know such platform who are interested in forming a core developers group to keep the job going, most probably working for free.

I've been working on PHP, JS and C# the past years, I worked before with Java, and wanna learn Python and Rust. I suppose Sandboxie is developed over C++, I worked on it a little when I was on university.

I'm also confused. Was Sophos always the owner of Sandboxie, or was Sandboxie sold to them?!

This is getting offtopic. Sandboxie's Wikipedia article explains - with referrals - the chain of events that led to Sophos owning Sandboxie (in short, they bought the company that bought Sandboxie from the original author).