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List:       koffice
Subject:    Response to Dennis E. Powell
From:       John Califf <jcaliff () usit ! net>
Date:       2000-09-26 3:12:55
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Dennis, I did read the Shawn Gordon interview very carefully. You did an
excellent interview and showed great skills as an interviewer in getting
your subject to open up.  You need not apologize for the interview
because you did your job too well.

There are at least two parts of KOffice that were are in Kde cvs that
are being influenced or managed by theKompany, KImageshop and Kword. 
KImageshop still has a mailing list but it's effectively dead.  Some
others were, as you say, dropped from Kde cvs before being taken up by
theKompany and others never were part of Kde cvs and are new.  Well,
think a little about why some projects may have been removed from Kde
cvs and then taken up by a commercial outfit shortly thereafter.  I am
well aware of which projects theKompany has developed independently and
I am looking forwad to their release.  Those projects are not what I am
referring to here.

I don't think Shawn Gordon is evil, only human. It is only human to want
to have control over what you invest in.  In the interview he clearly
indicated a desire for that kind of control over what he's paying for. 
This is not a matter of my not wanting to get along, for Christ's sake,
but of whether independent developers will feel like contributing to a
commercial (though open) project without getting paid. I certainly
won't.

The fact is that activity on this list has been lacking, and I am sorry
for being a provocateur but the focus needs to be moved back to this
list, and away from commercial channels.  If this contiues KOffice will
effectively become a commercial open source project, as more and more
activity moves away from Kde and this list and into commercial
management.  I don't want that to happen.  It will become another
Mozilla.  It's spirit will die.

To answer your poke about sending email with a browser, I can read
what's posted
here with a browser and can send email but not reply to a thread right
now, so I'm starting a new one.  

This is a matter of whether other KOffice developers want this to
primarily be a free project or a commercial open source project.  If
relevant technical and other discussions don't happen on this list,
where are they happening?  theKompany is free to do anything it wants
with the code or pay anybody it wants.  It is a matter of what people
involved want and I am not trying to force anybody to do anything.

This has broken my heart, a little.  I will go away for a few days and
hope that other people will think about these issues and what kind of
project they want KOffice to be.

Think again and stop apologizing,

John Califf

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