Does anybody here remember the sound and fury quite a few years back when Theo (or someone) posted a picture of his new bike shortly after a release -- I can't seem to find it in the archives. Anyhow, it's not all that important. The point is that suckers like me -- I've made a couple of paltry donations, but mostly I've just taken years of awesome code from Theo and the other developers -- really don't have any say in how the project operates. Giving money to OpenBSD doesn't put you on the board of directors -- hell, it doesn't even make you a share holder.
You give your *donations* to Theo and expect -- in good faith -- that he'll spend them wisely to further OpenBSD development; this doesn't entitle you to demand reporting on exactly how they're spent. If you don't like it, then stop donating. When it comes to his *salary*, Theo is entitled to spend his money however he damned well pleases -- being an open source developer does not condemn one to a life of asceticism (not that hiking/backpacking/mountain biking is exactly an extravagant lifestyle anyhow). It's a shame that there's a rift between Wim and Theo -- I've never dealt with Wim on any level, but like pretty much everyone else here has had good impressions about him over the years. I could hope that this issue will be resolved to everyone's satisfaction, but I'm realistic about Theo's abrasive nature, so I'm not holding my breath ;) Regardless, the project will no doubt move forward, and beer-loving Europeans (and Americans)* will no doubt still be able to get the software one way or another and give their money to the project in some form or fashion. *Canadians apparently fall in this group too. On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 9:11 PM, Theo de Raadt <dera...@cvs.openbsd.org> wrote: >> So what if it's founder lives a mountain biking/hiking lifestyle? > > There are people being misled that I pay for this extravagant > lifestyle out of donations. Hah. Shame on those people who spread > that rumour, and also shame on those who are so easily deceived. > > I hike near conferences that I am invited to; flights paid for. I > hike near hackathons that I must attend with developers -- hackathons > tend to be near hiking areas but I am not alone in preferring this > (our hackathon locations are otherwise chosen for "cheap accomodation > with free internet2"... perhaps internet2 usage is correleted to good > terrain..). Once a year I pay with my hard earned salary for a trip > to hike somewhere. Then one further time a year I use the reward > points -- from all my other flights and hackathon hotel bills and > developer flights paid with donation money -- to get to another hiking > destination. > > Yes... I have to take time off to do this, but as many of you know > when I get back from a trip I go through all the thousands of mails I > received and the project moves on. And between hikes in a foreign > country I find insecure ways to partially get in touch a bit and some > developers really hate that. I work hard. When I don't hike, and > especially during pre-release times, I sometimes don't get outside for > days at a time except on forced 10km runs. > > Extravagant? No. Just a life choice. > > I have had people accuse me privately of this. I hope others are not > so easily deceived. > > Trust me, with the OpenBSD donations are a loss. Just look at this > page, and estimate the hotel bills: > > http://www.openbsd.org/hackathons.html > > After you estimate those numbers, where would I find money to spend on > even a slurpee? Gimme a fucking break... Donations help a lot, but > they are not the whole picture. That is why we are so eager -- as a > project -- get the money that Wim has taken from us, because it will > help OpenBSD run more hackathons. The systems code you are running, > almost half of it came from hackathons. > >> If I can give him that and he can continue to provide this wonderful >> product for "free," I'm happy to help him live his lifestyle (even if >> he doesn't play well with others at times). > > It's a deal. > >> It's too bad the project >> doesn't have greater financial backing to allow more development of >> the OS goodness we enjoy--and also allow more "OpenBSD people" to live >> a Theo-like lifestyle, if they so choose. > > Others are trying to do it too, but they are just more quiet about it. > > And then there's the other catagory... the breeders... > > -- Systems Programmer, Principal Electrical & Computer Engineering The University of Arizona ma...@arizona.edu
