Parse, the backend-as-a-service owned by Facebook, has announced plans to open source all of its software development kits (SDKs), beginning with those for iOS, Android and OS X. “By sharing our SDK source code with the community, we want to share everything we’ve learned along the way, as we hope this will benefit others working on similar challenges in the mobile development space,” blogged Parse engineer Nikita Lutsenko.
John Rymer of Forrester Research noted that the move could be good for the cloud computing service. “Releasing the SDKs as open source signals that the code is stable enough for outsiders to bang on it and potentially extend it,” he said. “Many developers prefer open source licenses as they can evaluate the source to troubleshoot without issue. I see no business downside, as Parse doesn’t monetize its SDKs through developer fees.”
