Yes the repository was forked from CakePHP v2, before the framework was moved as a composer dependency, so v2 contributors are shown as Passbolt contributors.
It's the same model than redhat, you buy a subscription, and the software checks if you have a valid subscription. Nothing is stopping you from modifying the source to remove that check, re-build and re-distribute for free (or for a fee) under another name. This allows community-driven projects like Centos or Fedora to exist. It's an ambitious business model, which doesn't prevent other to compete. The bet is companies that rely on the service will want to pay and will prefer getting professional services / hosting from the original maintainers.
Hi passbolt developer here, the reason for building on top of CakePHP was mostly:
- it's been audited multiple time (last in date was by Cure53, financed by mozilla foundation)
- convention over configuration
- good versatility for hosting (= less support)
- lovely community (less big but very friendly)
Passbolt team was actually part of the Mailvelope project that did this. Integration setup is not easy / very user friendly, that's why it's not the default on Mailvelope.
That may be true for gitlab, but it's not the case for all the development tools. Like good luck running a selenium grid with 10min of maintenance per month.
In practice it's more than "ends-justify-the-means", it's a matter of how much time free software developers have and what they want to spend time on. For every alternative tools to github, CI, test grid, audit tools, etc. you have to factor in the cost of installation, maintenance and update. It's just not realistic to expect free software developers to take on extra work and/or financial investment. The author instead of calling people hypocrites should shift the discussion to finding creative solutions to foot the bill.