Re: when companies join over free software projects

[Mark Galassi <rosalia galassi org>]

Maciej, thank you for clarifying.

    Maciej> So really it was hacker to hacker - Ettore (and Miguel,
    Maciej> etc) decided that the Eazel hackers could do a better job
    Maciej> on the gnome file manager, and would duplicate a bunch of
    Maciej> effort otherwise, so they convinced us to collaborate more
    Maciej> (and ultimately in effect totally take over).

I do not think that Ettore was happy with it, and I do not think he
would have agreed to do it this way had Helix Code not been around.
That's why I say there was management pressure.  The worst thing was
the non-openness.

In any case, you make a convincing argument that the result was good.
I don't mind removing this as an example and reposting.  The worse
example, which I have remembered more clearly now, was when a new
Helix Code employee made a release of control-center without talking
to the maintainer about it.

Miguel partially defended the new Helix Code employee's actions on
gnome-hackers and many people were unhappy because they thought Miguel
spoke as GNOME project leader and not for Helix Code.

I think a better response in that situation would have been for Miguel
to put on his GNOME project leader hat, and say "you should not make
releases without coordinating with the maintainer".  As an example on
the docbook-tools list, Dave Mason, the Red Hat labs manager, always
tells people that they should not make splinter releases out of
impatience, but rather they should coordinate with me since I am the
maintainer.

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

The lack of openness was the worst part.

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

    Maciej> Darin is at Eazel, not Helix.

Ooops: does this reflect on my overall accuracy?  :-)

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

<offtopic>I can't wait to see the packages; I build few things out of
CVS these days.  Are you guys going to put out packages soon, like the
evolution ones?</offtopic>

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

I can state that that's what I heard, and I have no doubts that he was
unhappy, but it is really his place to say that.

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

Thanks for clarifying on that example.  I still thing things were not
done "right", but I will change my article.

Still, Maciej, aside from the (kindly) "attack" on Eazel and Helix
Code, what do you think of the idea that companies should let their
hackers participate in GNOME as if the companies did not exist?