> > And yes, it's 3 developers lost. Shame. > > Shame indeed but that's way it's gotta be, I suppose.
Note: The following is a personal rant and is not indicative of any organization's or other people's opinions, nor is it from my right frame of mind :) [BEGIN RANT] I cannot disagree more with "but that's way it's gotta be, I suppose". I do not even know where to begin. I would first like to say that selling SA to Mcaffee without even a hint of this to the group, and with no regard to the open source model, is a slap in the face to the 1000's of people that have helped make this what it is today. Now, before people say they have a right to make a living, capitalize on an idea, etc..., I agree. But, when you start a project with the idea of bettering the community (Which is what SA was designed to do I believe), and it grows to affect the lives of millions of people (No exaggeration in numbers), you have a responsbility to the community that got you where you are. (More on this further down) I see this acquisition as a sellout. Plain and simple. And this comes from a guy who has seen his fair share of business deals, and been approached to "sell out" as well. Why do I say this? Because Mcaffee does not embrace the open source model. Because they will pervert what this product has become. Because the owners did not stand up for what they believe and create something larger than themselves (Not a personal attack, just an observation). How can I say this? Let's look at some successful open source projects: MySQL is the largest free database in the world, and a great example of how open source can work. They create a free product, get the world to help, and then build a corporation called MySQL that caters to both enterprises and the little guy. And guess what? They are a *very* profitable company along with enhancing the Internet community with a great open source product. They have helped more small businesses and students develop great software and sites becuase they remain committed to open source. PHP is another great example. The most widely used scripting language in the world, and they have a corporate arm in Zend. Linux is the grand-daddy of them all, and RedHat proved you can be open source and make money too. With SA, I saw them following in the footsteps of these great open source projects. They had the most widely used spam protection system, created a corporate company (Deersoft) to make money to continue the free project, and a community that was willing to help in any way it could, as spam affects us all. All they needed was a paid service to companies (ala MySQL) as an option, and companies would have lined up to pay for a great service and true support. I know mine would. In the past I have sung the praises of SA to my colleagues and business contacts as a great open source success story. Now it will be the punchline in my jokes and anecdotes about corporate greed. Do the owners have the right to sell it? Yes, of course. Do they have the right to make money? Absolutely. Do they have a social repsonsiblity to the community? Definitely. Now before the attacks on the basis it is their project to do with it as they see fit, just a few things. They created SA to help the community fight spam. It was always touted as a free project, that would not be sold, but continue to evolve in the open source tradition (check the Archives for these posts). The trademark to was to preserve the SA project from hostile and commercial use. People joined this project and community based on these ideals and statements. And now the whole deal is owned by Mcaffee, a company that is against open source. Why not let the community know this was a possibility? I am sickened by the thought that my contributions to this project will now benefit a company that I strongly dislike, and I have no say in the matter. Why is it that a company waves some money in front of you, and you abandon your ideals and goals for the "quick score"? You're right, I have no say in the matter, but I can voice my opinion about how I perceive this. And I perceive it as an affront to this great community. I wish the owners the best, and hope they will not regret like so many before them their choice to sell out to a company instead of trying to create something that not only brings them money, but the satisfaction of knowing that what they do betters mankind. [END RANT] Back on track, is there any talk of branching off this project into another open source project with a different name, and continuing the open source building? I have seen this done many times, such as Neomail to Open Webmail. Since Mcaffee now owns this project, who is the lead on it? Who is willing to stand up and take it on? Where do we stand? What about 2.50? I raise these questions as the project, to me, is in a dangerous state, and could collapse if there is not some strong leadership on the future of the open source portion of SA. I apologize for my rant being so long, and if I am wrong in my assessments (and I hope I am for the sake of this project), please let me know. I have watched SA grow, and I would like to see the tradition continue. Rob M. ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.NET email is sponsored by: SourceForge Enterprise Edition + IBM + LinuxWorld = Something 2 See! http://www.vasoftware.com _______________________________________________ Spamassassin-talk mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/spamassassin-talk
