Date: Thu, 05 Mar 1998 22:52:14 +0000 From: "Aaron D. Gifford" <agifford@infowest.com> To: current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Donations. Message-ID: <34FF2C9E.4457A615@infowest.com> References: <1444.889019123@time.cdrom.com> <35025f98.6661194@mail.cetlink.net> <19980304083721.56007@mcs.net>
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Karl Denninger wrote: > > On Wed, Mar 04, 1998 at 02:07:29PM +0000, John Kelly wrote: > > On Wed, 04 Mar 1998 05:45:23 -0800, "Jordan K. Hubbard" > > <jkh@FreeBSD.ORG> wrote: > > > > >> With a pool of $500,000 to spend, neither Jordan nor core should be > > >> deciding what gets funded. Funding decisions should be controlled by > > >> the donors themselves, collectively. And voting is the only way to do > > >> that. > > > > > >This is a complete waste of time. I've already told you - if you have > > >a problem with the way funding is allocated then simply don't donate > > >funds, it's very simple. Can we get back to work now? > > > > > > Jordan > > > > Keeping my money is one of the easiest things I can do. > > > > If you can't see the value of meaningful donor incentives, someone > > else will. > > Bingo. > > MCSNet could make a reasonably-sized donation to this cause (few thousand > bucks) and would have no problem with doing so. In fact, if we had some > idea what that incremental funding would do, I could make the business case > to be significantly more generous. Simply put, money ain't the issue. > > The issue is that there are certain things that we really *NEED* fixed, and > to stay as priorities in remaining fixed as time goes on (things that used > to work, and are now broken for example - specifically, NFS issues for one, > and behavior under troublesome SCSI conditions [ie: returns of a defective > block from the controller] for another). I'm running kernels and OSs > patched up from November, specifically because since then the stability of > -CURRENT is bad enough from both direct observation and reports that if > the risks grossly outweigh the rewards of trying to roll an upgrade > through the network right now. > > If I fund the *breakage* of something critical to us, I'm shooting myself > in the foot. That's unwise. > > I understand that Jordan and the rest of the core team have their own > priorities. They sometimes don't mesh with mine. Ok, good and well. I > work around what I can, patch around what I can't work around, and remain > a few rev levels back if necessary in certain areas. That level of choice > is one of the nicities of a free operating system environment with source > code in a CVS tree. > > But for me to justify shaking loose the money on the tree, I need to be able > to show benefit. That's just business - its not personal in any way. > > -- > -- > Karl Denninger (karl@MCS.Net)| MCSNet - Serving Chicagoland and Wisconsin > http://www.mcs.net/ | T1's from $600 monthly to FULL DS-3 Service > | NEW! K56Flex support on ALL modems > Voice: [+1 312 803-MCS1 x219]| EXCLUSIVE NEW FEATURE ON ALL PERSONAL ACCOUNTS > Fax: [+1 312 803-4929] | *SPAMBLOCK* Technology now included at no cost > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message I have to agree with both sides of this issue. Let me explain. I believe Jordan's no-strings stand is an absolute necessity for ANY free software non-profit organization that wants to succeed. I believe there are enough folks who contribute freely without being compensated because they enjoy doing so, and I believe many of these same folks would loose motivation to contribute if donations with strings became the norm. Now I must agree with Karl that for a business (I use FreeBSD where I work too), contributing money WITH strings attached works best for the business and is the best way to encourage larger business donations. So how would I reconcile these two conflicting interests? Simply. Keep the status quo as far as donations to FreeBSD, Inc., but for ANY and ALL businesses who want specific projects undertaken, get busy and SOLICIT support from OTHER businesses, get together, and FUND development on your project independently, then contribute your work back to FreeBSD if you really believe in the free software model. Otherwise, found another BSDI. Aaron out. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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