Re. The Foundation [was Re: FreeBSD Mall now BSDCentral]

[Julian Stacey [EMAIL PROTECTED]]

Hackers, CC [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Wind River might be cautious & slow when considering donating the
FreeBSD trademark to a FreeBSD Foundation controlled by a board of
just 3 directors, that even FreeBSD people are just getting to know
of, & have yet to evaluate as `The Foundation'.

Wind River might find it easier & quicker to decide to donate the
trademark to the foundation, if the foundation comprised not just
3 self appointed directors, but perhaps included at least 3 non
executive directors on their board.  Adding 3 non-execs might
increase the assurance of others too, not just WR.  BOD could invite
core to nominate the first few that BOD appoint.  The non execs
could retire by chronological rotation, as real directors do.

As I recall FreeBSD Inc (ie jkh & dg, a team of 2) once held the
trademark, then it moved to Walnut, then BSDi, then Wind River. If
DEC can be bought by Compaq, & British Telecom can run into financial
trouble, I see no reason to believe Wind River to be a magic safe
haven, but equally, FreeBSD Foundation with just 3 on the board,
has merely a 50% greater attraction as a safe haven run by 3 FreeBSD
trustees, than FreeBSD Inc. had with a team of 2.  Safety in numbers:
If BOD want just 3 execs to make operations easy, fine, _But_ if
BOD want us to be broadly reaasured that they will be a safe haven
for FreeBSD assets such as the trademark, It'd look much better if
BOD appointed some non-execs to their board, purely in a
supervisory/trustee, non-exec role.

The sooner BOD appoint a handfull of non-execs, some nominated by core,
the sooner it'll be easy to encourage Wind River to donate the trademark,
before who knows what might happen at, to, or within Wind River ?

Julian
J.Stacey  Munich Unix (FreeBSD, Linux etc) Consultant  http://bim.bsn.com/~jhs/

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