Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2000 02:54:06 -0500 (EST) From: jack <jack@germanium.xtalwind.net> To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@zippy.cdrom.com> Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Is FreeBSD dead ? Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0003120235220.483-100000@germanium.xtalwind.net> In-Reply-To: <5726.952812634@zippy.cdrom.com>
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On Mar 11 Jordan K. Hubbard wrote:
Michael Bacarella said:
> > Corporations care only for their interests. Their stockholders will be
> > pissed if they act otherwise. Do you really think there's something wrong
> > with people who are scrutinizing this move?
>
> No, I only feel there's something wrong with those who are both
> scrutinizing it and jumping to a lot of premature conclusions about
> it. I expect scrutiny. I don't expect chicken-little running around
> and yelling about the sky falling.
I think what the Prophets of Doom fail to realize is that this is
actually two different mergers involving three separate and
distinct entities, and that Walnut Creek and FreeBSD are not one
in the same. Yes there is a relationship between the two, one
that has been beneficial to both sides, but neither controlls
the other.
WC pays people to work on FreeBSD, that has never been a secret.
But it has only been a very very small percentage of the
committers and contributors who make up FreeBSD, certainly not
enough to think that they have controlled the project.
Countless other companies have also paid people to add features,
drivers, or whatever else they needed to FreeBSD and contributed
the results to the project. That has not given any of those
companies control over FreeBSD.
What WC has brought to the table has been, primarily, promotion
and distribution. The corporate merger between WC and BSDi, one
of the two mergers, should increase what's available in those
areas. Plus, BSDi brings the commercial support that FreeBSD has
lacked and has prevented its use in many corporate environments.
What's the down side to this?
The corporate merger will also bring more full time developers to
FreeBSD, a Good Thing[tm] IMO. The number of paid developers
will still remain a small percentage of the contributors. Many
of the people who currently hold the keys to the commit bits are
already on the corporate payroll. I see no reason to expect a
change in their principles, commitment, or judgment just because
their paychecks may be drawn on a different account.
The second merger is the merging of the source trees. Control of
the FreeBSD source remains with FreeBSD. What gets merged into
FreeBSD's tree will be entirely under FreeBSD's control not the
control of any corporation. Why would anyone expect anything but
the best code from the two trees as the result?
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