Kendall Bennett wrote:
>
> Keith Whitwell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> > I'm a little sorry you chose to word your email as if there was
> > some conflict. The point you make about sourceXchange is a good
> > one, and John Carmack lamented (in the style of all good
> > businessmen) that Mesa, unlike the FSF, did not have charitable
> > organization status, and hence the donation was not deductable.
> > It's unfortunate you had to phrase your letter with such a divisive
> > introduction in order to make a constructive point in the closing
> > paragraph.
>
> I think the reason I did that was because the announcement really
> *did* have a negative impact on some of the Mesa developers. My
> initial reaction was 'Oh now, what kind of bickering will this
> start?'. This was followed up by private emails expressing similar
> concerns about this, the details of which are no longer necessary.
I'm very sorry to hear this. I hope there are no remaining bad feelings.
In hindsight I can see how the announement could have been misunderstood.
I certainly don't want to upset any Mesa developers.
> The moral of this story is that the truth is always the most powerful
> weapon. If the original announcement had described what had really
> taken place, none of this resenment would have surfaced.
I wrote the announcement and take responsibility for not making it
clear enough. When I update the web page's Acknowledgement's section
I'll try to clarify the nature of the id donation (er, contract).
As a footnote, I've sure learned a lot about the politics of free
software development over the past six months. What started as a
little graphics library project has snowballed into something much
larger. Between the copyright debate of last winter and this
misunderstanding it's clear that one needs more than just technical
skills in order to organize a project like this.
Unfortunately, there's rumblings of more politics to come. In the
future I'll try to bring these issues to this mailing list for
discussion.
-Brian
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Brian Paul Avid Technology / Softimage [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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