[ Thanks to Kevin
Reichard for this link. ]
“…A number of companies have become involved in development of
particular open-source applications and packages. The involvement
has included monetary support, payment of salaries to programmers
already working on free Linux applications, development and
contribution of new features or extensions (I’m talking about
features and extensions that are then returned, open source, to the
projects, not the always-helpful Microsoft seizing upon the
Kerberos code, making it incompatible, and slamming a proprietary
lid on it), or actually hiring programmers to work under the aegis
of the company itself on particular packages, the code going to the
open source organization that originated the packages. The dominant
view is that this is generally a good thing.”
“And it can be. But it can also become a bad thing, and unless
some lines are drawn, it’s a sure bet that it will.”
“As what follows unfolds, it will seem very much as if I’m
portraying some of the players as villains. I am not. Repeat: I am
not. I am very specifically making no accusations. Nor am I saying
that anyone isn’t a villain. Instead, I’ll illustrate a couple of
examples of companies working with the development of KDE. We’ll
hear from those companies and from leaders in the noncommercial
aspects of Linux. We’ll hear from a leader within KDE
itself.“
“And then we’ll ponder the potential for something to go
terribly wrong.”