ciol wrote: > Hello, I'm a bit confused about debian. > I believe that its main characteristics are: quality, freefom *and* 100% > voluntary. So I wonder with Dunc Tank and the fact that Joey Schulze > wants to be paid, if debian will not loose its identity. Isn't it > possible that release managers give their money to debian and Joey > forgets his idea and that everybody lives in peace ? Or debian will just > be a distro for hurried administrators who do not want to pay too much ?
I don't know much about Dunc Tank and so on. I like to use free software. I like debian as a free OS and as an excellent collection of free software. I like that practically all the software I use is free -- so no-one could take that away from me. But the fact that two developers will be paid for one month each (IIRC they worked for debian on money for a month each at the end of last year, but they will be paid _after_ etch hits stable) *does not* turn debian into non-free software or takes anything from debian being a volunteer project. Some companies pay debian developers for working on debian. Some companies pay developers for developing other free software that is part of debian. This has always happened. And all this *does not* mean that debian looses its identity (otherwise debian and free software would have already lost their identities before debian was founded). The important distinction is that they are not payed by debian. It's an important concept that the debian project is not just a non-profit organization, but also a 'non-money' organization that does not itself pay others. On the other hand, debian project would loose its identity, if debian would care about by whom its developers are being payed. I am sure that there are some that get payed from companies or government organisations and that is fine. (No idea how many, though.) But, to be honest: we can never be sure that there is no one who would pay a developer to achieve malicious goals (say a secret service or whoever). We would not know about the pay or about the goals and would not discuss it here or elsewhere. We just hope that there are enough competent eyes around to notice any wrongdoing. If it was a concern for debian that all its developers work without pay, how would we go about to make sure that no one is payed behind our back? Concerning dunc tank: this money is payed in a transparent way and for a good cause. Absolutely no problems for me. This whole discussion is somewhat exaggerated <- my .02 > please help me. A pleasure. How? Johannes -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
