Re: Companies' incentives: That's not universally true. I refer you to companies that have as at least some of their core operating principles the ideas of customer service - Nordstrom, Les Schwab, and a few others, possibly Costco and UPS. I'm sure others can point out more examples, but I can speak directly to Nordstrom, as I worked there from 1984 to 1995.
It depends on the management - though perhaps that should be narrowed to "It depends on the founders" - it seems that once the founders are gone, many times focus on customer service is lost. I know that I speak against my own point here, but only to say that the exceptions prove the rule. In general, though, I agree those that companies are not incentivized to support - and also note that the above companies are not known for supporting open source - but then they're not technology companies. So, to pursue it a bit further, I'd have to say that we'd have to examine the marketplace a bit more carefully. It might prove useful to follow up on other companies that support other Open Source efforts, such as IX Systems, Isilon, Juniper and a few others. They support the BSD platforms in general, but I do not know if they support smaller, more focused projects, such as OpenSSL - that's a very interesting question for which I don't have an answer. I don't know if there are any companies that support OpenSSL - it's possible that none do. That might be because of their focus on complete operating environments, or it might be because it was a small(er) project that got lost in the shuffle. It'll be interesting to track whether that project gets some corporate funding after this kerfuffle - I won't take any bets either way on this. I only think it's a bit soon to say. Kurt On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 6:17 PM, Andrew S. Baker <[email protected]> wrote: > > Companies are not *built* or incentivized for good will. They are only > incentivized for profit and the mythical "shareholder value". And the freer > the market, the greater the desire for ROI. > > ASB > http://XeeMe.com/AndrewBaker > Providing Virtual CIO Services (IT Operations & Information Security) for the > SMB market… > > On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 2:41 PM, Kurt Buff <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> As always, it seems to boil down the the ROI on security/safety. >> >> Corporations are notorious for shedding the costs for security/safety >> whenever possible, even to their own detriment, because they don't >> understand the value of good will. >> >> Kurt >> >> >> On Sun, Apr 20, 2014 at 11:21 AM, Andrew S. Baker <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> Why some open-source project enjoy so much more corporate support than >>> others -- >>> http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/virtual-cio/linux-vs-openssl-support-a-matter-of-revenue-potential-60915 >>> >>> Please take a look at this article and let me know what you think... >>> >>> Regards, >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> ASB >>> http://XeeMe.com/AndrewBaker >>> Providing Virtual CIO Services (IT Operations & Information Security) for >>> the SMB market… >>> >>> >> >
