Keep this in mind....there was a commercial and an open source version of this product/service. According to what's been written, here, the open source product will live on as an open source project.
On Tue, 7 Jan 2003 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > 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 > -- Mike Burger http://www.bubbanfriends.org Visit the Dog Pound II BBS telnet://dogpound2.citadel.org or http://dogpound2.citadel.org:2000 ------------------------------------------------------- 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
