RE: license discussions

On Sun, 2004-04-04 at 15:26, Dr. Rich Murphey wrote:

> 
> Any impression that a vendor consortium will be a public servant will almost
> certainly change with time.  We've been there before.  He who does not learn
> from history is doomed to repeat it.

Exactly.  Some people learn from history, and some do not.

This is why the X.org Foundation is *not* a vendor
consortium, (despite the similarity of name to the predecessor
organization, which was an industry consortium), 
and is an open membership organization,
where anyone who contributes has say in its governance.

In contrast, XFree86 has governance with no say from anyone
whatsoever except its board, which is self perpetuating, and
composed mostly of people who are no longer active contributors
to the X Window System.

So at this point, XFree86 has managed to become exactly what it
was founded to avoid, while what it avoided is becoming what
XFree86 should have been. XFree86 is repeating previous history.

Ironic, isn't it?  Sigh.  So sad.  The wasted time and anguish.

                           - Jim

-- 
Jim Gettys <[email protected]>
HP Labs, Cambridge Research Laboratory