Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2001 16:48:09 -0500 From: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> To: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: BSD direction/Damonnews article Message-ID: <15137.18457.765347.530729@guru.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <3B21407C.2B9E8D6D@pitt.edu> References: <20010604200851.A65559@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> <3.0.6.32.20010608140211.00ae4470@mail85.pair.com> <3.0.6.32.20010608153126.00f7d7e0@mail85.pair.com> <3B21407C.2B9E8D6D@pitt.edu>
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Pedro F. Giffuni <pfg1+@pitt.edu> types: > I suspect many companies face the exact same problem: > > 1) the MS Windows market is the really big market but it is currently > controlled my Microsoft and a very small group of companies: there's > no space to compete. > 2) New company decides to try a very small and especific market and > listens to an equally small agroup of would-be costumers asking for a > linux port. > 3) Linux port is released but the revenue (if at all) doesn't seem > very high. > 4) A minority group asks for a BSD port which is quickly rejected in > light of the Linux results. > 5) When wondering about the revenue, new company discovers linux users > love opensource. > 6) Community (AKA slashdot lusers) promise to pump development into > product if it is opensourced under a GPL license. > 7) Company decides GPL is sufficiently restricted not to affect > windoze market and releases code under GPL. > 8) Company fires core developers and hires web administrators to > update the project pages in preparation for the horde of opensource > programmers about to work for free. The company just did something incredibly stupid, and is going to be punished for it: > 9) The development of the product slows down significantly and the > free workers that were expected end up being only testers. > 10) Project is forgotten. > 11) Project dies slowly (it was a project wasn't it?). > [...] > > My recommendation to stop this deadful chain is to make developers > aware that GPLing the product means they will lose their jobs sooner > or later. People wearing developers hats don't get to make decisions about the financial future of the company, so your recommendation is ineffective. Go to the root of the problem, and convince the people making those decisions that if they don't have developers, they don't have control of the development of the product - which pretty much spells death for the product. <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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