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Gentoo Founder on his way to Redmond
Rotworm writes "Recently former founder of Gentoo Linux, Daniel Robbins, has managed to procure employment with Microsoft. Robbins describes his position as "helping Microsoft to understand Open Source and community-based projects." Seemingly there's no scandals as Robbins managed to finalize the transfer of all Gentoo's IP to the Gentoo Foundation, Inc."
Gentoo founder and former Gentoo Chief Architect Daniel Robbins began a new position at Microsoft on 23 May 2005.
Just an incorrect paraphrasing from the original article.
He took some (all?) of the profits in order to offset his personal cost starting Gentoo. The Gentoo Foundation and the developers all agreed to it because of everything he'd done. I think it's perfectly fine, myself. He lost thousands starting Gentoo.
Robbins has long stopped contributing to Gentoo, since April 04.
-Reid
I think everyone should understand that he had large credit card debts, that he tried everything he could to make it work fiscally, and that the community failed to provide the finances that would make it work.
His approach was technically superior to the other distros in its fundamental approach, and funding could have cured any detail problems. It was the right approach. He went broke, and we should all be sad at this.
The nice thing would have been if some government had funded him. None did.
Thus he works for Microsoft. I imagine he is sadly bitter about it all.
Namesys is also having payroll problems, though our problem is more due to my divorce than anything else.
Hans
(Author of Reiser4)
No, thats the trustees archive which has not been updated to show the latest advancements. Try some "live" archives of the not-for-profit list and you'll find threads such as this one: http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.gentoo.nfp/265
The transfer is complete.
I sent drobbins the paperwork last week, and he
mailed out signed copies today. I didn't send
a message to the mailing list because I assumed
that a news announcement on the front page of
www.gentoo.org would suffice....
Many Jews also write "G-d" instead of "God". While this later substitution is by no means required by religious law (only the Hebrew name, not the English, is holy), it is done to remind the reader of the holiness attached to God's name.
from Wikipedia.
I hope you're simply ignorant on the matter (though not any longer) and are not criticising someone else's religious custom.
Yes, I'm feeding the trolls. Take that, subspace.
Mandatory link.
We need a "+1, Scary".
Yes, I know it's a joke. But we still need it.
Why is it that when you believe something it's an opinion, but when I believe something it's a manifesto?
MS used to recruit all the best talent out of Borland, back when borland had a better compiler.
c net
Borland filed suit to stop them. They weren't successful (obviously), although MS admitting to recruiting 34 employees of Borland.
article about it. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-279561.html?legacy=
Microsoft uses NDAs to keep you from telling others what you saw while you were working there, and a "we own every thought from the moment you sign on board with us" agreement that I believes even covers your dreams. You can list technologies that you want excluded up front, so you still own them, but you give Microsoft a "worldwide, perpetual license" on the technologies nonetheless. I'm curious as to how someone who worked on GPL technologies will be treated in this environment, since they can't legally grant such a license.
I don't know Daniel Robbins, but all I can say is "good luck" in trying to change any minds in Redmond. I tried while I was there, and have been trying even since, without much success. I left the company in part because I saw open source as a huge threat to the bottom line and few were willing to listen. Even further, I was told by the very highest levels of management (you can count his position in the company on two fingers) that it was inappropriate for me to be an advocate for my customers. This was because I was challenging Windows itself, and that's just a no-no when it generates so much revenue for the company.
Don't get me wrong - Microsoft isn't going away any time soon, but anyone who thinks that Microsoft will embrace non-Microsoft technologies that can't be bought outright is smoking crack. Sure, they "borrowed" the TCP/IP stack and a few other things to put into Windows, but that's a rare exception. But I'm still firmly convinced that someday Redmond isn't going to matter much. Let's face it, when was the last time you saw Bill quoted from a keynote speech as though what he said was gospel? He's no longer the darling of the media, and Wall Street ain't none to happy with him either. When Microsoft gets more press time for its stance on gays rights issues than on its latest software releases then you know that something is wrong in Redmond.
There was a period of about 3-4 years when IE for the Mac was the best browser by far...
Netscape 4.7 was a crashy, buggy, piece of bloated shit.
Cyberdog was dead and gone.
iCab has always supported about 1/10th the features of *real* web browsers.
And IE 4 was the best browser on the Macintosh platform, by far. Actually, when it hit version 4, it was the best web browser ANYWHERE by far... most compliant, most features.
Believe it, it took a LONG time for me to finally switch from Netscape 4.0.8 (the last non-bloated non-shitty Netscape) to IE, but when I did, I was really happy. Microsoft's software for Macintosh has always been far superior to the same software on Windows... I don't know why that is, exactly, but there it is.
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