

10gen: "Get Paid For Developing Open Source Software" - jwebster
http://ongig.com/jobs/10gen/Ruby-Engineer-Evangelist--10gen-555-University-Avenue--Palo-Alto--CA-94303

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daniel_levine
How many core developers work somewhere besides 10gen? I know there are a few
contributors who work on drivers but it seems like nearly all of the
contributors work at 10gen.

Lately I've noticed a lot of "open source" projects that don't feel open
source at all. Chrome, Android and Mongo all jump to mind. In each case one
company does nearly all of the work and dictates what the product does and
where it goes.

It is true that I can fork as I wish, but the odds of my indie fork being able
to keep up or compete long enough to gain escape velocity seem unbelievably
low. It seems that whatever 10gen or Google want to do on these projects they
can do with little chance of reprisal from any open source community.

Perhaps there should be a new name for software whose source is available but
is effectively controlled by a for-profit entity.

~~~
andrewparker
It's a big deal that a for-profit company is willing to let all their
customers and competitors see their source code and reuse it (in accordance
with their license).

If we need a new word for this type of behavior to distinguish it from FOSS,
then I hope it's a word with strong positive connotations, because it's a
great thing for for-profit companies to be doing, especially when most for-
profit technologies companies today are standing on the shoulders of open
source giants of the past.

~~~
daniel_levine
Not if the goal is simply to create a competitive moat and dependent
population before gouging them. I'm not saying Mongo will do that but I will
be curious about how they interact with companies like MongoHQ and MongoLabs
over time.(And hi Andrew!)

While a bit extreme I might compare it to the agricultural aid practices of
Western governments. In many cases they are fantastic, but often they also
serve as a way to destroy blossoming agricultural economies. Without working
domestic agriculture country development is often stunted (in the case of
Mongo, work on a truly open source alternative).

Separate digressions:

I would also argue that much more of modern software is actually built on
progress made by proprietary technology than people give credit, but that's a
separate debate. I fully recognize the value of open source and it is my
preference

An interesting counterpoint to my agriculture argument would be free trade
across borders debates. Much like the US can feed the world for nothing,
manufacturing was done more effectively in one place (China for awhile) but I
wouldn't argue for restrictions on how China behaved to get us dependent on
them (though currency manipulation and workers rights might come up).

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peacemaker
They seem like a really good company to work for. I recently went through a
couple of rounds of interviews there and although I wasn't really suited to
the position (it was via recommendation so we gave it a shot) they seemed like
smart guys.

