Re: when companies join over free software projects

[Maciej Stachowiak <mjs eazel com>]

Mark Galassi <rosalia@galassi.org> writes:

>     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?"

Ettore was working at Helix, and was going to work on the VFS and the
file manager for Helix. Eazel was originally going to write a
completely separate thing, but Ettore and the Helix crew convinced us
we should merge with the official GNOME file manager project, since we
had the ability to put in a lot of development effort. Originally,
Ettore was going to continue putting in a fair bit of his time on
gnome-vfs and the file manager, but things didn't work out that
way. So really it was hacker to hacker - Ettore (and Miguel, etc)
decided that the Eazel hackers could do a better job on the gnome file
manager, and would duplicate a bunch of effort otherwise, so they
convinced us to collaborate more (and ultimately in effect totally
take over).

Other than the non-openness of these dicussions, I think this is a
model of how companies can get involved in free software.

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

Darin is at Eazel, not Helix.

> 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.

The results of making Eazel's file manager the official GNOME file
manager speak for themselves I believe - we're definitely not the
gcc-2.8 branch here.

> [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.]

Ettore was the one working on gnome-fm; and he was the one who wanted
to bring Eazel in. Perhaps he felt pressured by his management, but
this is the first I've heard of it, if so.

I don't think your take on the situation is fair or accurate.

 - Maciej