[IronPython] [Kamaelia-list] Kamaelia and IronPython (was: Hosting IronPython 2.X in .NET app)

[M. David Peterson]

On 7/20/07, Sylvain Hellegouarch <sh at defuze.org> wrote:
>
>
> I must admit though, after so many years in OSS, this is the first time
> I hear this sentence.


How many OSS projects and/or the projects corporate sponsor generate 50 some
odd billion a year in revenue and have at any given time 30-60 some odd
billion in the bank?  Couple this with the fact that for all intents and
purposes MSFT has only been in the open source "business" for between 2-3
years (and its only the last year that they have really pushed the OSS power
play button) and it makes sense as to why this is the first time you have
heard this sentence.

Mind you this is not as if Microsoft was the only
> one doing so, I bet all the big companies do so. They have to.


Even if they were the only ones, how many big companies do you know that
generate 50+/-billion... and have in the bank 30-60+/-billion...?  The game
changes when you have resources that rival the GNP of a small to medium
sized nation.  As much as I'm sure we all, to some extent, wish this wasn't
the case, it really *IS* about the money.  Maybe not in every respect, but
again, when you're a target as big as MSFT, the game changes.  Maybe its
just MSFT being ultra sensitive, but again, when that much cash has to be
constantly protected from a million different directions, attempting to
convince the lawyers that "yeah, but OSS communities are different than the
rest of the world" isn't going to be an easy task, especially when OSS
luminaries such as Eric Raymond are making statements such as,

> I expect to be quite wealthy once the dust from the Linux IPOs has settled
>
> Doing It For The Cause<http://wearcam.org/esr_travelrules_speaking/esr_travelrules.html>,
> December 12th, 1999
>

Like I said, it really is about the money.

>From a developer point of view though, it's a big "WTF?" :D


Thus my comment "who want's to deal with lawyers *EVER*".  Generally
speaking, its not in our genetic makeup to think of the world in such a
way.  Fortunately there *ARE* lawyers (even if I don't want to deal with
them) who take interest in taking care of things like this for us so we can
spend more of our time worrying about writing code, and less of our time
dealing with the legalities of the trade.

Thanks Dino for the honesty nonetheless.


Ditto.

-- 
/M:D

M. David Peterson
http://mdavid.name | http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/2354 |
http://dev.aol.com/blog/3155
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