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Subject: Re: Funding GPL projects or funding the GPL?
From: Federico Ferreres <fferreres@ojf.com>
To: Rik van Riel <riel@conectiva.com.br>
Cc: Larry McVoy <lm@bitmover.com>, Alexander Viro <viro@math.psu.edu>,
       linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
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On Sat, 2002-07-27 at 13:06, Rik van Riel wrote:
> Agreed.  What we need is funding for the development of those
> things which aren't already taken care of by the community.

The problem is not the community, but how the comunity is structured in
certain areas. If big companies, educational institutions or goverments
are not interested in your project, the OSS model fails as you stated.  

> In the areas where open source software is doing well, there
> already is funding by interested parties (companies, government,
> universities, ...).

100% true.

> In short, I believe the voluntary donations aren't needed in
> most areas people would donate to and won't make enough of an
> impact in the areas where they are needed.

Good point. I started at the wrong place. Anyway, if your funding is
based on final users payments you need to make payment a non-option. So
if vital parts of GNU don't help them a bit, it may just not work. If
Windows/DOS didn't help fund Office, would we be having the Office
compatibility problems now? Extend the list to all MS userland apps.

As long as payment is optional and fragmented, OSS will have a hard time
in userland core apps. Maybe an fGPL could work for them. Bad luck the
projects that could help are already well funded.

I'll get back and rethink the problem ...

Federico
PS: Larry, it's ok really. Harsh comments that make sense are much
better than silence. Though without your posts it'd have been mostly
flames. Thanks!

> regards,
> 
> Rik
> -- 
> Bravely reimplemented by the knights who say "NIH".
> 
> http://www.surriel.com/		http://distro.conectiva.com/
> 


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