[ Thanks to Amy
Bennett for this link. ]
“Historically, the open source community has been wary of
projects that have been corporate-led, and that same history has
often validated those fears. Sun Microsystems’s acquisition by
Oracle and the ongoing problems that have ensued for some of the
open source projects that Sun once led (OpenOffice.org, Hudson,
MySQL, and Java) have justified the notion that when a for-profit
corporate entity has control of an open source project has control
over a free or open source software project, you’re just asking for
trouble. Better, many argue, to contribute code and governance
responsibilities to a non-profit foundation, where ultimately the
code and other project works will be protected from being dominated
by any one vendor.“OpenStack’s success and the behavior of its Rackspace parent
definitely belie this notion, and raises an interesting question:
can a single vendor successfully start and then lead an open source
project? As far as OpenStack is concerned, all signs seem to be
pointing to yes.”