On Thu, 2011-02-03 at 09:06 +0530, Rahul Sundaram wrote: > On 02/03/2011 09:03 AM, Kenneth Gonsalves wrote: > > I do not hobnob with the biggies - but even at my level I value my > > choice of license very heavily. But the point is that you are yet to > > show how the choice of license is in *any* way relevant to the > success > > or failure of a project. > > I have no intention of showing that because that is not at all my > point. My only emphasis is that it affects the nature of development
at first I agreed with this - but on reflection I do not understand how. The only foss project I am familiar with is the djangoproject which I have bee watching for the past 5 years. It is BSD licensed. The nature of their development is: 1. They have a BDFL who is the final arbiter of disputes - but he rarely has to step in. Maybe once or twice a year 2. They have a set of core developers with commit rights. Commits are made after filing tickets, pasting code and discussions - but theoretically a core developer can commit even without discussion. But this never happens - apart from fixing small bugs and correcting typos. It is noted that the group of core developers is constantly growing and changing - many people have left, none in a huff, all because their interests have moved elsewhere. 3. Around the core developers there are hundreds of people contributing patches and even bigger pieces of code - those who sustain and get the trust of the core group are absorbed into the core. 4. and of course, a huge number of one-time contributors who just give one patch or maybe do a translation or a correction of a translation. The two BDFLs have been very successful in attracting and keeping developers - at the same time are very strict about enforcing the basic principles - like the amount of code to be allowed in a template or the utmost attempts to avoid backward incompatibility - although not at the expense of crippling development. They have also started a foundation to run the show. This is the BSD style of development - but apparently the GPL guys do things differently - can you enlighten us how and in what way their nature of development is different? -- regards KG http://lawgon.livejournal.com Coimbatore LUG rox http://ilugcbe.techstud.org/ _______________________________________________ ILUGC Mailing List: http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc
