Re: when companies join over free software projects

[Mark Galassi <rosalia galassi org>]

    Darin> This is a surprising allegation. I'm not aware of any games
    Darin> played with the VFS and file manager. Could you be more
    Darin> specific about this?

The person originally developing VFS and the file manager was doing it
as a volunteer project.  When Helix Code employed him, they agreed in
private discussions with Eazel that Eazel would work on those parts of
GNOME.  The decisions was made by management at the two companies.

I would have preferred to see this carried out in the manner that
befits free software projects: one hacker tells another "dude, do you
mind if I take that over?  I have some great ideas; look at them --
and don't you think you would enjoy working on this other thing more?"

You're at Helix Code.  Maybe you can correct this, or elucidate
further.

In an almost amusingly different example, in the days of gcc-2.8 and
EGCS, RMS insisted that Kenner continue maintaining GCC even though
all GCC contributors said that things should be done differently.
They ended up starting EGCS, which RMS did not like at first, but it
thrived because he did not manage it.  He ended up liking it and
approving of it, and now EGCS has become the official GCC again.  I
contend that he should have let the hackers choose, and not made a
management intervention into the fate of gcc-2.8.

[I could put my thread to rest before it even gets going by talking
about Ribertropp/Molotov and Poland :-), but I really do not feel that
way.  I just think that there should be no management intervention
into what the core GNOME hackers do.]