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On 12/17/2016 08:58 PM, Andrej Rode wrote: |
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> |
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>> Funtoo, knoppix and devuan are not serious professional grade distros, |
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>> two of those are in beta and gentoo isn't something you want on most |
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>> production servers. |
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>> |
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>> You can't be seriously suggesting that hobbyist distros with one or two |
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>> developers and bad security policies is a serious replacement for the |
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>> systemd corrupted distros can you? |
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> |
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> So bascially you want to have a professinal grade distribution developed |
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> by independent hobbyists for free? |
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> Somehow distro maintainers have to be fed and live from something. So |
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> either you have a corporate-free hobbyist distro with a handful of devs |
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> or you have to suck it up and deal with it that people get paid by |
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> companies to develop free software (which is actually a good thing). And |
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> their company can give them directions how to develop free software they |
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> are working on. |
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> |
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> Cheers, |
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> Andrej |
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> |
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|
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I don't think it's that clear-cut (companies paying for libre software |
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devs == good). Moneyed interests in something *can* be good for both |
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sides, if fair business is conducted. Frankly, most businesses get it |
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wrong, as can be expected from a profit-oriented entity. |
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|
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Paying devs to work on libre software and telling them what to work on, |
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while mostly normal practice in the profit-driven world, can create |
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effects (unintended or otherwise) that guide other software; especially |
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if a business is employing a developer working on pivotal, important |
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projects. A business's direction of that employee can create ripples |
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throughout the rest of the libre software ecosystem that other projects |
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may have to work around or be forced to depend on the corporate work to |
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continue existing. Innocent enough at first, sure. Projects become |
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obsolete or have to change their dependencies all the time. But if a |
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business is targeting specific parts of the stack, replacing it with |
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theirs, and urging others to depend on their new stack, it's blatantly |
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obvious that they're not interested in collaboration or playing fairly. |
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They want to own the stack and every mechanism in it. For what ends, I |
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have no clue. Possibly to peddle their stack as the *only* stack to |
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clients so they can rake in more business while the libre software world |
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gets stuck maintaining it. In short, it's a form of crowd-sourcing labor |
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that they wouldn't otherwise pay for. And the average programmer will |
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fall for it because it makes them feel important and, like the rest of |
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us, has this pesky need for a home, food, and enough cash to save away |
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for emergencies and/or retirement. |
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|
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I agree with your opinion otherwise. It's not reasonable to expect |
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volunteers to be available, on-call, and alert to news 24-7; that's the |
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level of commitment you need to be a serious security worker, and nobody |
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has the spare funds to sit around and stay up to date on stuff without a |
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paycheck coming in. |
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|
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I'm reluctant to point to them, but sports may have a good idea with |
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sponsorships. Some people in libre software could be sponsored, and some |
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companies could sponsor someone in a hands-off fashion, just letting the |
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developer do their thing while the dev does support, consulting, or |
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maybe patches for the company for their internal projects. That's a |
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relationship that could work, though just like any other monetization |
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scheme, it's prone to abuse from the money holder. Maybe CS curricula |
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should have Contract Law 101 or something to protect them from being |
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fleeced or manipulated. |
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|
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The next best model is public sponsorship through platforms like Flattr, |
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Gittip, Patreon, and so on. It gives the developer full autonomy, but a |
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less dependable cash flow. |
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|
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Giving talks and publishing books has been super successful for a few |
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people, but naturally takes up a lot of time and can be draining. |
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|
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Business models aside, the only real fix for this is to get to a |
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post-industrial and post-labor world, where people aren't forced to work |
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to survive. There's no telling how long that will take, however, as |
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those with money naturally want to maintain their powerful position in |
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society. That change won't come peacefully, and unfortunately probably |
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not in our lifetimes. |
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|
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</rant> |
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-- |
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Daniel Campbell - Gentoo Developer |
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OpenPGP Key: 0x1EA055D6 @ hkp://keys.gnupg.net |
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fpr: AE03 9064 AE00 053C 270C 1DE4 6F7A 9091 1EA0 55D6 |
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