Re: Funding software development?

On Wed, 5 Jun 2002, Deven T. Corzine wrote:

> On Wed, 5 Jun 2002, Ove Kaaven wrote:
> 
> > > * Release of DirectDraw code under the Wine (X11) license -- was this done?
> > 
> > Yes.
> 
> Should I assume it was incorporated into the standard Wine codebase, then?

It was. Look at some of the copyrights on the dlls/ddraw code...

> > > * Release of all Wine code after a "set number of users" have subscribed to 
> > >   their service.
> > > 
> > > If they didn't do either of the first two releases as described, then they 
> > > have clearly broken their promise.  If they followed through on just the 
> > > first two, but not the last part, from the above message alone, I can't say 
> > > that they've broken a promise.  That's because they've got a loophole in 
> > > the "set number" -- they didn't specify the number.  (Did they specify a 
> > > particular number later?)
> > 
> > The number was 20000.
> 
> That's good to know.  When was this first stated publicly?

When (or before?) the transgaming website was launched, I think. Not sure.

> > > If they want any trust from the community on follow-through, here what they 
> > > should have done:
> > > 
> > > * Make a public commitment as to the EXACT minimum number of subscriptions 
> > >   are necessary (1) for the initial release and (2) for ongoing release of 
> > >   later patches.
> > 
> > Both numbers are 20000.
> 
> That's good to know.  I gather you work for Transgaming yourself?  Is this 
> an "official" statement, or would that have to come from Gavriel State?  

I work there, but my statements are not official, no, and I'm not part of
the decision-making process there so many of my statements about why
transgaming has acted the way it does are guesses, but I can certainly say
that taking wine's hard work and never contributing anything back has
never even been considered an option, no matter what the LGPL trolls say
on this list.

> Did he make an official statement about this number in the past?

It's been on the website from the start, at least.

> This is just a thought.  But if Transgaming did this, they might regain 
> some of the trust that seems to have been lost after the time period for 
> the benefit of the doubt evidently expired for some people...

We'll see what the management decides.

> > > * Follow through with the code release when the threshold is met.
> > 
> > The threshold is still a long way off. The LGPL didn't exactly increase
> > the incentive for continuing to submit code to Wine before reaching the
> > subscription goals, although such releases will still happen sometimes.
> 
> I'm assuming that if and when the subscription goals are met, Transgaming 
> would release the code for use under X11 and LGPL licenses, both?  It seems 
> valid, in principle.

Yeah, that's the idea.