Money for Bugzilla development [was: [off-topic] ...]

[J. Paul Reed]

On 13 Jul 2003 at 03:03:56, Madhava_Challa moved bits on my disk to say:

> I never knew my simple request for automatic e-mail notifications would
> stir such a strong discussion..

Well... it's a good discussion for the team to have every half-a-rev cycle
or so.  ;-)

> This opens my eyes into the freebie world, which I always wondered how it
> ever worked..

Well, there's your first mistake. Open source != freebie. In fact, calling
it "freebie" is kinda insulting (to me, at least; I know you're not trying
to be insulting, but I'm letting you know it could be taken that way by
others) because it reminds me of the "freebie crap" you get at a carnival
or when you sign up for a new checking account.

Bugzilla may be "free," but it's not "freebie crap" (again, the "crap" part
is the conotation *I* tend to think of; I'm not implying you were
necessarily meaning that... :-)

Your confusion might stem from "free software" meaning "free speech" vs.
"free beer" (as it's often explained); read more about that aspect of open
source here: 

http://www.opensource.org/advocacy/free-notfree.php
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html
http://www.opensource.org/advocacy/jobs.php

I can assure you, though, that the development process is just as strenuous
as that of a closed-source package. In fact, often times, open source
development models are *more* strenuous; they *have* to be to make it work
with volunteers scattered around the world.

Feel free to email me privately if you'd like some more pointers to how
open source works or some questions on how the Bugzilla and Mozilla teams
get their work done.

Honestly though, you shouldn't feel bad; this kind of open discussion is
what makes open source work, and this discussion is actually pretty tame
(if you want lively, check out bug 84876 or bug 156979).

Later,
Paul
------------------------------------------------------------------------
J. Paul Reed -- 0xDF8708F8 || preed at sigkill.com || web.sigkill.com/preed
To hold on to sanity too tight is insane.   -- Nick Falzone, Pushing Tin

I use PGP; you should use PGP too... if only to piss off John Ashcroft