--- DigiGod <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I don't know if this is going to be a popular idea or not, but I feel I
> have to say something because I think it is something JOS needs to be
> successful. All I ask is that it is considered and discussed.
Hey, people need to speak their minds, popular or not. I'm glad you
brought it up (I was tempted to do the same and now I have the perfect
excuse to also chime in).
> My proposal is that we create a small, symbiant, corporation: a JOS
> company to aid JOS the non-profit and live off its creations. The
> corporation would (or rather: could) create and sell CD's of common JOS
> distributions similar to red-hat (although the differences would be
> obvious) it could provide tech support, handle the more quotidian tasks
> of maintaining the JOS website perhaps it could even hold a small
> payroll of professional programmers to do nothing but write for JOS. Of
> course JOS the non-profit would be a separate organization, it would
> stay much as it is, JOS the corporation would support itself on JOS the
> grassroot open source project, the benefit to the project is the company
> would market it, do press releases and the like. These two organizations
> would act much like the yin and the yang on the JOS logo, it would make
> the net result not quite an open source project (which is almost by its
> nature doomed to obscurity) and a regular company (which is, well, a
> company.)
I also agree. IMHO Our website for instance is a "wasted" resource. I've
been looking at our traffic and the types of visitors we have and have
always thought that we should be selling small ad space on it. The money
could be funneled back into the effort ... at the very least maybe to
sponsor members to attend java conventions like JavaOne. As soon as you
get into money though, you start talking about needing some sort of entity
to legally handle these issues.
> I wouldn't even know to start with something like this, but I think it
> would have several benefits:
> *In its own self-interest it would create awareness of the JOS project
Agreed. And if it had a half way decent PR department, JOS would be
really easy to push at the media. It would also represent JOS at
conferences and trade shows!
> *Its products would be JOS-oriented, opening it up to a larger market
> (You know "JOS for complete morons" -- stuff like that :)
True.
> *It could create alliances with or get contracts from governments and --
> more likely -- universities
And simply serve as a legal entity when making deals.
> *If possible, it would hire programmers who could work exclusively on it
> (while still maintaing the open source grassroot nature of the project,
> that is to say they would be just like any other JOS member [hopefully
> they would have already been JOS members] and their code would be
> assayed on merit -- just like everyone else's)
Agreed. And they could take on the 'dirty' tasks such as, if necessary,
packaging JOS with proprietary software in order to get a truely useful
product together... (notice, this little 'wink wink wink' will become
clear later).
> The only con I can think of is that we'd have to go through the bother
> of creating a company...
True. This can be a problem. We seem to shy away from the admin issues
(mostly in my observation because we have a hard time gaining consensus
and no one wants to make anyone else mad).
> Ultimately, I want what is best for JOS (long- and short-term) and this
> is, after all, just an idea.
I do too. And now onto my own personal reason for pushing a commercial
arm of JOS. A few weeks ago, I joined http://www.etoolz.com/. We're
heavily involved in Java technology and our next product essentially needs
to create a JOS-like system. Of course, being a JOS member, I started
promoting JOS as the best solution and everyone here is very excited about
it.
As such, we are interested in the JOS technologies and I've contacted a
few JOS members privately about possibly working on JOS as consultants.
This is in both our interests as Etoolz just need code written and are
more than willing to keep the code GPL'd or NPL'd or whatever the public
license is that the code is currently protected by. In fact, the reason
we want to pay these particular JOS developers is to have them work on
certain missing features we really need, and to hopefully accelerate their
development schedules! Nothing in ink yet, but we're working on it.
NOTE: This is not an open posting for job opportunities. Just evidence
that a mutually beneficial commercial relationship should be possible.
:) Of course, if you're a 'guru' at linux and java and Xwindows
programming and are willing to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) I'd
like to talk to you...
The other future benefit for JOS is that our company is licensing the Sun
class libraries. I see no reason why Etoolz can't port the class
libraries to JOS in the future to provide a certified class library
solution for JOS. If and when classpath or some other library matures
enough, distributions can then choose what library to package with JOS.
JOS developers can maintain cleanroom status by simply using the Etoolz
binary.
In the meantime, JOS can begin shipping with a fully complaint library and
JOS members can concentrate on higher level OS details, tools, or even
work directly on classpath without being pressured to deliver the library
for JOS so that other people (like the GUI folks) can get going.
As far as pushing JOS commercially and putting more dedicated time and
effort into the website and other PR efforts, I think Etoolz would be
interested in doing that in the future (perhaps early next year). And
certainly, if our current product in the works is commercially successful,
we'll be looking to expand our JOS development with possible full or
part-time dedicated JOS jobs becoming available.
We at Etoolz envision our future relationship to JOS to be similar to that
of RedHat to linux, or probably more accurately, like Cygnus to gcc. If
people in the JOS project feel comfortable with that type of relationship,
I can start developing Etoolz official position on this (gotta talk to the
boss).
Let's keep this discussion on the general mailing list. If you want to
contact me privately, please send email to my work address:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
-iain (etoolz software engineer)
ps - Please don't "slashdot" us. We want to further develop our website
before really pushing traffic through our site. Thanks.
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