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Right. And at Tarsnap I do exactly that -- but Tarsnap is designed to be profitable. For startups which lose money hand over fist, it may be hard to justify m

Right. And at Tarsnap I do exactly that -- but Tarsnap is designed to be profitable. For startups which lose money hand over fist, it may be hard to justify making such contributions until after they're acquired.

BostonEnginerd 10y ago
And thank you for both of those things -- making a small profitable business and giving back to the community!
lifeisstillgood 10y ago
I am going to backtrack wildly here - I did not mean to imply your (very large) OSS contributions had not happened. I think your track record speaks for itself. On reflection I was speaking from a worry that the majority of companies I have worked for did not / refused to allow OSS contributions, and that a lot of engineering talent was squandered on proprietary work of dubious value. Fixing that seems like it would unleash enormous value across the economy / society. As such startups are perhaps less relevant to the solution, but startups can be the sexy blueprints of the future, copied by others, so it might help.
- cperciva 10y ago
  Don't worry, I think I understood what you meant. I was just offering a possible explanation of why some startups might be better positioned to contribute later rather than right now. For example, I don't think I saw any code contributions from WhatsApp to FreeBSD, and I know Tarsnap donated more to the FreeBSD Foundation than WhatsApp did pre-acquisition -- but when they were acquired and Jan Koum suddenly had money available, he made the largest donation the Foundation ever received. So, if you can contribute now, great; if not, well, keep doing what you're doing, and if you're lucky enough to have a big exit hopefully you'll remember us at that point.
  - lifeisstillgood 10y ago
    I'm glad to hear about the BSD donation. And, I guess the status quo is ok, it's just we live in societies built off investments in open science and open standards and yet we privatise the value this created as if the prior foundations were just a natural phenomenon <lament over>
    - cperciva 10y ago
      This is approaching the crux of the GPL vs BSD philosophical divide, actually. Some people say "you used my work and made money from it? You should share", while others (myself included) say "you used my work and made money from it? Awesome, great to know that you managed to make something people wanted out of it".

BostonEnginerd 10y ago

And thank you for both of those things -- making a small profitable business and giving back to the community!

lifeisstillgood 10y ago

I am going to backtrack wildly here - I did not mean to imply your (very large) OSS contributions had not happened. I think your track record speaks for itself. On reflection I was speaking from a worry that the majority of companies I have worked for did not / refused to allow OSS contributions, and that a lot of engineering talent was squandered on proprietary work of dubious value. Fixing that seems like it would unleash enormous value across the economy / society. As such startups are perhaps less relevant to the solution, but startups can be the sexy blueprints of the future, copied by others, so it might help.

cperciva 10y ago
Don't worry, I think I understood what you meant. I was just offering a possible explanation of why some startups might be better positioned to contribute later rather than right now. For example, I don't think I saw any code contributions from WhatsApp to FreeBSD, and I know Tarsnap donated more to the FreeBSD Foundation than WhatsApp did pre-acquisition -- but when they were acquired and Jan Koum suddenly had money available, he made the largest donation the Foundation ever received. So, if you can contribute now, great; if not, well, keep doing what you're doing, and if you're lucky enough to have a big exit hopefully you'll remember us at that point.
- lifeisstillgood 10y ago
  I'm glad to hear about the BSD donation. And, I guess the status quo is ok, it's just we live in societies built off investments in open science and open standards and yet we privatise the value this created as if the prior foundations were just a natural phenomenon <lament over>
  - cperciva 10y ago
    This is approaching the crux of the GPL vs BSD philosophical divide, actually. Some people say "you used my work and made money from it? You should share", while others (myself included) say "you used my work and made money from it? Awesome, great to know that you managed to make something people wanted out of it".