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Microsoft, Google, Others Join To Fund Open Source Infrastructure Upgrades
wiredmikey (1824622) writes "Technology giants including Microsoft, Google, Intel, and Cisco are banding together to support and fund open source projects that make up critical elements of global information infrastructure. The new Core Infrastructure Initiative brings technology companies together to identify and fund open source projects that are widely used in core computing and Internet functions, The Linux Foundation announced today. Formed primarily as the industry's response to the Heartbleed crisis, the OpenSSL library will be the initiative's first project. Other open source projects will follow. The funds will be administered by the Linux Foundation and a steering group comprised of the founding members, key open source developers, and other industry stakeholders. Anyone interested in joining the initiative, or donating to the fund can visit the Core Infrastructure Initiative site."
Mentioned in the FAQ:
http://www.linuxfoundation.org...
For the lazy:
Why is The Linux Foundation the right forum for this funding?
The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit organization with strong, existing relationship throughout the technology industry. It marshals the resources of the Linux ecosystem and other innovative open source projects to provide much needed services that are not easily offered by a single community member, entity or company. By raising funds at a neutral organization like The Linux Foundation, the industry can effectively give projects the support they need while ensuring that open source projects retain their independence and community-based dynamism.
I'm not aware of a FreeBSD foundation or a NetBSD foundation. The Linux Foundation, however, is a consortium that includes several large companies and has individuals experienced with bridging gaps between big corporations and communities. It's also worth remembering that the Linux foundation arose from the merger of Open Source Development Labs and Free Standards Group. When you take in that context, it makes a lot more sense.
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I'm not aware of a FreeBSD foundation or a NetBSD foundation.
Okay, time to get up to speed then:
The FreeBSD Foundation
Donations to The NetBSD Foundation
RT.
Why wouldn't they just contribute this work to the existing OpenSSL? Why does it have to be a fork?
Because the OpenSSL people sat around with important bugs sitting in the queue for years and never fixed them. This is why the OpenBSD people---which is where some of the unresolved bug reports came from---decided that basically working with upstream is not an option and decided to go it alone.
In fact that's exactly what the OpenBSD people said about the fork at the beginning.
The problems with OpenSSL predate heartbleed and they've finally got too big for the OpenBSD people to leave it alone. Hence the fork.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
It's a shame then that they chose a name that explicitly excludes large portions of the Free and Open Source Software ecosystem.
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You post as if their enlightened self interest is a bad thing.
Sure they benefit. But each of them could sit tight and wait/hope for someone else to pay for this.
I say good for them. This deserves praise, not contempt.
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