Re: A market perspective on the impact of dunc-tanc

[Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org>]

Kevin Mark <kevin.mark@verizon.net> writes:
> I think my statement was meant to say that most contributions to
> Debian are by people who are not getting paid. Would that be closer to
> a fact?

Of course.  But what of it?  The real question is whether it matters or
not.  As I mentioned in another post, paid and volunteer positions are
not simply the same thing +/- some cash -- there are big differences in
reponsibilities, motivation, control, etc.  Volunteers aren't
volunteering randomly, they get gain benefits from their activity (or
else they wouldn't do it); arguably these benefits are often _stronger_
motivations than money might be.  I'm sure there are some people who
might be so put out by the presence of any paid developers that they'd
quit, but I think most DDs are made of stronger stuff than that.

There could be more vague "social" effects, like a reduction in the
feeling of "we're all in this together" -- but I think it would take a
_significant_ presence of paid developers to cause any real
change. [What was the actual number hired?  Two?]

-Miles
-- 
80% of success is just showing up.  --Woody Allen