Re: suggested requirement and what funding is for

[Tom Lord <lord at emf dot net>]

	mrs: [ How to get ahead in Free Software Business ]

So, the upshot of your suggestion is:

	1) Do all the R&D, initial marketing, support, 
	   and advocacy out of your own pocket.

	2) When the project has stabilized and matured
	   and been widely deployed, we too will will grab
	   the .tar.gz and consider using it.

	3) Profit!  ("?" -- /bin/ed)

The practical reality is far harsher.  My own pocket is worse than,
worse than empty.

The practical reality also gives reason to hope:  arch is a
successful, functioning prototype, with at least a small number of
happy users and active contributors.  It is tiny, hence easy to
evaluate.  I maintain (and hope some of my Q&A on this list has helped
to _begin_ to show) that the path from its current state to a 1.0 you
will be happy to rely on is perceivable and measurable to a degree
sufficient for tactical business planning.   The 1.0 can be all the
better for the input of gcc maintainers on its design.

In the great "commercial Free Software debate", MSFT argues that 
free software undermines R&D investment, and thus retards innovation
by excluding it from the economic engine of business.

You seem to be agreeing with MSFT.

Now, in reality, there are counterexamples to MSFT's claim.  There
_is_, in fact, _some_ investment in advanced free software R&D.  So
the "out of your own pocket" path you advocate is _not_ the only
route.

I don't happen to travel, at this time, the "corridors of power"
within which I might be able to make a case for R&D investment in
`arch' to the right people.   Some of you on this list, do.

So, my gosh, dewar and others -- I never meant to _offend_ (challenge
perhaps, but not offend), and I hope that over the last few days I
have started to find a "style" with more appeal.  Some of the
questions asked have been great, and are starting to get into the
technical details that I think tell the story best.

So, please consider (mrs and others) -- are there any routes, among
our collective resources, besides the "out of your own pocket" path?
I've spent (by individual scales) a huge amount of my own and my
friends' money already.  There isn't any more to spend; unemployment
where I live is at horrifying levels; yet arch is in a state that
admits tactical analysis, planning and investment, and addresses an
area that I think is plainly of importance to businesses using free
software (better source and project management tools for free software
and open source projects).  I believe it has plainly better prospects
than its contemporary competition, though I do not wish to antagonize
those projects on this list.

       Free software is hard work.

So is homelessness and perhaps starvation, and those are my short-term
prospects.  I don't mean to be a whiner -- but that is the unvarnished
truth.

-t