Re: Eleven good candidates

[George <jirka 5z com>]

On Thu, Nov 02, 2000 at 12:53:43AM -0600, Mike Kestner wrote:
> > ... I also know that having the presence on the
> > GNOME Foundation board by someone affiliated with Sun will be recognized by
> > ISV's, platform developers and vendors, the media, service providers, etc.
> 
> So Sun's presence somehow transmutes us from a bunch of crackpots into a
> serious endeavor? :-)

No, we'll be a bunch of crackpots no matter what.

> > Such credentials will be necessary for the GNOME Foundation to be a recognized
> > voice - a major voice for the significance of open and free software.
> 
> Am I reading this correctly?  Are you suggesting that a lack of Sun
> representation on the Foundation board somehow decreases the perceived
> significance of free software?  Don't get me wrong.  I think that Sun
> deserves credit for recognizing the strength of the free software model
> and having the courage to set a precedent here.  However, I find the
> above sort of rhetoric to be a little demeaning to the significance of
> what has been accomplished already with little corporate affiliation. 
> Sun saw the steamroller coming and decided it's better to roll than be
> rolled.  Others will recognize this too, whether a Sun rep sits on the
> board or not.

I'm reading John's reply a bit differently.  Among the corporate type people,
having Sun involved with the board WILL give us credentials that are needed.
Remember that most of these people thing that free software hackers are a
bunch of pinko extremists.  If we can point and say "Look we have a Sun
person here", will make the board (at least in the eyes of these people)
look much more credible.

Now this alone cannot be a good reason to elect John, but it's one of the
reasons, and no it's not like saying "without Sun we'd be nobody".  But I
think in the eyes of many our "credentials" will go up if we have a Sun (or
any other large company person) on the board.

However I think the above point is a very minor one,  I think the biggest
reason to have John on the board is to make sure that OpenOffice is going in
the direction that we'd like it to.  It is a bit selfish I guess, but I don't
care about Sun's objectives here.  But with John on the board we will have
more "leverage" (apparently a popular lawyer term according to bart) with
OpenOffice and other sun efforts.  It will also allow us to have more
"communication" since

1) John will be more informed about what is going on in GNOME and can relay
that to the OpenOffice team
2) We will have someone who knows OpenOffice/Sun when such issues arise
during meetings.

George

-- 
George <jirka 5z com>
   A good memory is needed after one has lied.
                       -- Pierre Corneille