"Future Tech" vs KDE Developer

Once in awhile a story comes along that warrants mention just so that people know to be careful. Mosfet is a KDE coder (who has had tension with KDE in the past and left some ill will over there). He was hired by Future Technology to continue work on his Liquid KDE style and theme (my personal favorite). But they never paid him, so he removed their name and mentioned it in the Changelog. Now FT is threatening legal action to get the Changelog off the net. But it's more bizarre because MandrakeSoft is the host, and the site remains up. Keep reading if you're interested in a few more bits.

I've been a huge fan of Liquid for some time. I've been compiling releases and using on my laptop. The project isn't nearly as ambitious as Enlightenment, but it has some interesting UI ideas and it looks good. I was really pleased when I found out that Mosfet was going to have a shot at continuing the development of the program for FT under the KDE License. At this point, FT ("The Total Linux Company," according to their website) mentioned a few of the features in Liquid as being part of the benefits of FT's distribution. This was to set them apart from "Other" distributions, although even at the time I found it funny, as The final decision in selecting one RPM based distribution over another would rarely be tipped in favor of the one with translucent menus ;)

Anyway the Changelog contains the following line:

* Future Technologies' name has been removed. They hired me to do KDE development, but failed to pay me after promising to do so three times over the span of several months :( I still haven't seen any of the paychecks they said they would send me, and they even went as far as sending me a fake FedEx number. Now they are saying they can't afford to pay their employees.

And soon after Mosfet's website announced that he was leaving Linux and Liquid was dead. Unable to afford to develop Liquid for free, he was seeking work in the windows world.

According to the site, on 10/28, Dr. Giovanni asked Mandrakesoft, the host of Mosfet.org to take down the site, under threat of legal action. But since I see the site still there, it looks like they are standing their ground which is a good thing.

Anyway, I don't know what the moral of the story is, beyond a warning to keep both eyes open. There is a lot of questionable stuff that goes on in this world. Be careful.

(I've emailed Giovanni from FT but have yet to hear back from him.)

Comments

Re:Mosfet is a cry baby

[davidsmind]

I haven't been /.'ing long, is a troll a good thing or a bad thing? ^_^

seeing future tech's website...

[|guillaume|]

I don't know why he thought he'd ever be paid.

Their site looks like it's been designed by a group of kids for a school project.

Liquid is very damn cool though, if you don't mind wasting some cpu cycles for your eye's pleasure :)

it's the name, stupid

[Kiro]

maybe they call themselves Future Tech because whenever you ask about the salary, they talk in the future tense

.

Why is this in censorship rather than humor?

[Nailer]

Come on, who didn't burst out laughing when they saw Future Tech's website?

Re:Why is this in censorship rather than humor?

[Maserati]

And I busted up laughing when I noticed that they issued their own security certificate.

Re:Interesting...

[SwedishChef]

That's what "contingency" means... that the pay is contingent upon winning. Of course, show me a lawyer who'll take a contingency case against an open source developer and I'll show you a lawyer who graduated "summa cum duh" from his law school.

Tune in tomorrow..

[mrbill]

For another exciting episode of "As the Hard Drive Turns"! Open-Source soap opera at its finest..

Giovanni is EVIL

[erroneus]

Without having read too much, I can assure you that this Giovanni character is evil to the core. According to my sons, he is responsible for the reprehensible actions of "Team Rocket" and directed the research that lead to MewTwo!

I understand that the quest for the ultimate Chinpokomon is important and we all must destroy the evil power. So this Giovanni guy must be shamed out of the Chinpokomon arena forever.

But please do not be angry with me. I have a very small penis. It's not huge like your penis...

Re:Mosfet should sue FT!!

[jdavidb]

Fortunately they don't own the copyright on that, either. :)

Mosfet Blows

[Anonymous Coward]

It just goes to show, just a little static can fry a Mosfet. ;o)