It seems that Theo Raadt and his fellow developers for OpenBSD have gotten rather miffed at the treatment they are getting from some of major vendors that profit from their software. Mr. Raadt even goes as far as to shame Sun on their treatment, and names IBM as another major player not playing nice also. While FOSS developers complaining that companies are exploiting their work for profit isn't anything new, I thought the subject matter was worth mentioning as most Linux users also use SSH.
Article on 'The Gem Report'
Article on NewsForge
Wish I was in a financial position to help OSS projects. A token amount is all I can give to any of the multitude of developers of free software I use. I have no idea of OpenBSD group's inner workings, but wonder if they have a dedicated person for drumming up funding, the way not for profits have.
It doesn't sound like it from the article. Raadt said that to-date, they have only received about $1000 US in donations for OpenSSH since they have started working on it.
Yeah, that's why I dislike BSD licencing. It just makes people, especially those who try to make money off your work, get away for free. At least with GPL, you get some codes in return if not monetary. That's why Apple got free OS off of hard work by BSD Micro kernel developers. In return, they got almost nothing. I'm happy for Apple that they have excellent OS. My friend works for Apple. But it's just that people will take advantage of you and there is nothing you can do except b!tch about it.
Theo' temper is famous.. honestly he should shut up, he cannot force anyone to contribute, he cannot therefore gain anything from bitching and moaning over the lack of donations.. that is aside scaring donators away with his bile and hatred.
I, for one, swear to never give a dime to OpenSSH or OpenBSD as Theo sickens me.
Even if you can't stand Theo, OpenSSH is worth buying a shirt to support.
"In the heat of conversation I may have said certain things I believe to be untrue. The alleged lie that you might have heard me saying allegedly moments ago ... thats a parasite that lives in my neck." -- Tad Ghostal
Well put. Most of the BSD projects are worth something. I havent gotten my annual donation figured out, but I think OpenBSD will be the one. There is alot of work in that community that is so helpful to all. I have donated alot to Apache and the kernel project, but not (aside from the occasional disc set) thrown any money towards the BSD projects.
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