I agree with Graydon's observation about the bounty thing not working. I think it would cause free software developers to compete with each other to the point of hiding information, and that isn't what's gotten free software as far as it is. I also like his idea about setting up a web page with offers and ideas; sounds sort of like those pages where you bid for an airline ticket and agents compete to get you the lowest price, in a way. I think the FSF idea about manual-writing is well-intentioned but you're right, it will burn a lot of bridges if multiple people work on it and only one person gets paid. It might be better to decide ahead of time who gets to do it... but then it becomes more like a contractor situation, and FSF becomes a "corporate" sort of entity. Still, in terms of not pissing people off, I think it might be better that way...
When I saw this headline, I remembered that Red Hat includes the top two headlines from/. on their main page. So if you go to redhat.com, you too can have the privilege of seeing this letter linked from their front page. Just an interesting thought. I'm sure they've realized by now.
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I agree with Graydon's observation about the bounty thing not working. I think it would cause free software developers to compete with each other to the point of hiding information, and that isn't what's gotten free software as far as it is. I also like his idea about setting up a web page with offers and ideas; sounds sort of like those pages where you bid for an airline ticket and agents compete to get you the lowest price, in a way.
I think the FSF idea about manual-writing is well-intentioned but you're right, it will burn a lot of bridges if multiple people work on it and only one person gets paid. It might be better to decide ahead of time who gets to do it... but then it becomes more like a contractor situation, and FSF becomes a "corporate" sort of entity. Still, in terms of not pissing people off, I think it might be better that way...
When I saw this headline, I remembered that Red Hat includes the top two headlines from /. on their main page. So if you go to redhat.com, you too can have the privilege of seeing this letter linked from their front page.
Just an interesting thought. I'm sure they've realized by now.