>On Sun, Jun 17, 2012 at 16:14, Peter Laufenberg wrote: >>>Funny thing is, I've never been upset about the 20+ OpenBSD and >>>ex-OpenBSD developers who now work for google. >> >> Do they still work on OpenBSD and contribute back? > >yes. some more, some less.
first off, I do not understand the word "back" that Peter used. they simply "contribute" by making changes in our tree. they don't "contribute back". using "back" implies that what they work on at google has anything to do with openbsd. none of us know if that is the case, and if it is, so what? they are free to do anything they want. google is their job. other people have jobs too :-) those openbsd developers who work there, and also do commits here, do so out of passion, and fully cooperate with the other developers to move a source tree forward. that's good enough for us. other people work at other jobs, and the same happens. secondly, what strikes me as very interesting is that almost all developers who get new jobs -- at google or elsewhere -- tell their co-developers that they are in the midst of a life-changing moment in their lives, and that will get busy and not be of as much use in the next while. except that did not happen for the crew marco hired. in that case, secrecy was paramount. in that case, they got busy and did not tell the people they were working with. they effectively abandoned the projects that were active in the tree headed to the next release, and left other developers hanging out to dry -- by not telling them that 5+ of them were suddenly not capable of helping. as a group, they chose to be ex-OpenBSD developers, by their actions of not participating with partners they had promised to develop with. even now, some active OpenBSD developers are judging me for my reaction, and I can understand the uncertainly of their position. make of it what you will. it's too stressfull. perhaps i should become an ex-OpenBSD developer too, those people seem to have much more glamourous lives...
