GreenPepper Open

Questions

1. Why not contribute to FIT instead?
2. Why not open source everything?
3. Where does the name GreenPepper come from?
4. Where to go for user-related information?
5. Why JIRA and Confluence and not Open Source equivalent?

Answers

1. Why not contribute to FIT instead?

It is a good question and we think it is important to share the rationale with you. It is obvious that we were deeply influenced by FIT and we will always be grateful to its creators and contributors for bringing forward the idea of expressing requirements as tests.

After using FIT for a while, we began to have ideas on how to extend its vision and reach. We looked at the code and we felt that doing a clean room implementation would be better.

We also wanted to create a business, but FIT's licensing would not allow us to do that. Although we want the core test engine of GreenPepper to be Open Source, we do not want this initiative to prevent us from offering a set of related tools and services. We know that this kind of accompaniment is key to successful software development.

2. Why not open source everything?

As indicated in the previous answer, generating revenue allows us to maintain a greater commitment in evolving GreenPepper Open. While creating a business, we want to maintain our strong commitment to open source and the community. We feel that the pricing for our products is in line with this.

We also promote other initiatives like the DonationProgram and the GoldPepper award as part of our community program.

3. Where does the name GreenPepper come from?

A sunny afternoon, a group of Pyxis employees went outside and tried to find a name for the product. (At that time, the project was internally called Agilistic.) They came back with 'GreenPepper'!

Green has a special meaning in the Agile and testing communities and pepper because... we like peppers.

There is an interesting anecdote about when we were searching for a slogan: Ȳic Laram裬 one of our employees, stated the memorable Greed is Good speech from the Wall Street movie, and came up with a much funnier and friendlier version of it. It goes like this:

"The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that: green, for lack of a better word, is good. Green is right; green works. Green clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Green, in all of its forms, green for life, for money, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind and green, you mark my words — will not only save your application but that other malfunctioning industry called IT."

4. Where to go for user-related information?

We maintain forums, have a wiki, and maintain our roadmap in Jira. See the complete list of tools on GreenPepper Open community.

5. Why JIRA and Confluence and not Open Source equivalent?

Atlassian has built superb products and sells them at a very reasonable price. We have been using Atlassian products since they were first marketed and have always been pleased. Furthermore, Atlassian products are built with a very open and extensible architecture. Therefore, it was logical for us to become a value-added reseller partner and to bundle their products in our commercial offering.