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Industry-Based ToDo Alliance Wants To Guide FOSS Development

Posted by timothy on from the high-standards-for-free-stuff dept.

jralls (537436) writes The New York Times broke a story [Monday] (paywalled if you look at more than 10 stories a month) about ToDo, "an open group of companies who run open source programs" who are seeking to "committed to working together in order to overcome" the challenges of using FOSS, "including ensuring high-quality and frequent releases, engaging with developer communities, and using and contributing back to other projects effectively." The more militant among us will read that as "It's not enough getting a free ride off of developers building great software, we want to shove our roadmap down their throats and get them to work harder for us — without having to pay for it, of course." That might be a bit harsh, but none of the companies on the page are exactly well known for cooperating with the projects they use, with Google being one of the worst offenders by forking both Linux and WebKit.

3 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. not like megacorps don't control OSS already by alen · · Score: 3, Interesting

    most OSS software is already developed by giant megacorps. all the routers, apple, google, red hat, oracle, IBM and others
    the guy at home coding after work is a myth

  2. Writing code isn't always fun. by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The biggest issue with a lot of of the home grown Open Source Apps, is getting past the dreaded 80% complete mark.
    This is the point in the program where all the interesting proof of concepts and interesting algorithms are all set. However that last 20% is a lot of the detail fine tuning that really puts all the pieces in play.
    This last 20% mark when it no longer becomes fun, is where the project looses steam and sometimes dies off.
    Having a company putting money towards development with management and direction and all those MBA Buzzwords basically means we push the developers to get that last 20% done.
    But of course if they are pushing to get that set done, and are putting in resources to help that, it is going to be their vision of 20% not necessary yours.

    I know a lot of the Open Source people have this Anti-Corporate everything mind set... However to make it in the world there needs other sources of motivation other then just feeling good.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  3. companies pay workers to develop software by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Good point.

    I've contributed to open source projects (mostly Drupal, in my case) for years. Virtually all of it has been while I was paid as an employee, contributing back things I developed for my employer (and with my employer's consent and encouragement). I don't send the bulk of my time working on projects just for the community. Most of my time is creating solutions for my employer's clients. But in the course of this, it is not uncommon that I create something useful to others, and then contribute it back.

    Open source developers are a diverse group and I know my situation is radically different from many other people's. But it is easy to generalize, and good to keep in mind that developers and companies come at open source from different perspectives.