[nycbug-talk] OpenBSD and funding

[Charles Sprickman]

On Jan 15, 2014, at 3:53 PM, Okan Demirmen wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 11:21 AM, Dan Cross <crossd at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> I'll be frank: a subset of the sub-projects are what is important, not
>> OpenBSD itself.  OpenBSD seems to slide further and further from overall
>> relevance with each release.  If OpenBSD fails, then the communities that
>> care about the sub-projects will pick them up and carry them forward.  Or
>> not; but for OpenBSD itself?  Well, nobody mourns the death of PR1ME.
> 
> Hi Frank,
> 
> I think one needs to review some facts before posting blather such as
> the above.  Please don't go off without knowning, nor understanding,
> what OpenBSD is and is not.  There is quite some reading out there
> that touches on this topic which might be helpful to you Frank, and to
> others that may now be confused.

I'll be Sgt. Cupcake.

First off, I will admit that I chuckled at the "bake sale" comment
in the thread.  It's no secret that Theo is a bit blunt and perhaps
not a totally pleasant person, but dry wit can sometimes make up for
that.

As for the relevancy of OpenBSD, as someone that's not a *direct*
user of the OS I disagree with Dan.  Even if there were only 100
people running the OS, as long as development continues there will
be other projects watching and pulling fixes, sub-projects and ideas
from the OS.  I can't quote any numbers, but the number of fixes
taken upstream by FreeBSD, NetBSD and from there Apple, Microsoft
and Linux is huge.  If you use a computer, you benefit from the work
OpenBSD does, regardless of whether you're running OpenBSD.  You
also benefit from Theo's irascibility, as his management style, like
it or not, is in part responsible for the quality of code that comes
out of the project.  And it does get press attention.

It's not just OpenSSH, although these days I cannot find a
commercial device with a cli interface either at home or at work
that does not use OpenSSH.  And I do not want maintainership of that
project taken over by that popular open source OS that begins with
an "L".  Not a total dig on the code quality from that group of
projects, but it's a great example of injecting some developer
heterogeneousness into the security landscape.

I am continually shocked at how so many large companies embed
OpenSSH and can't be bothered to help fund development.  But I
suppose that was part of the point of the thread - the OpenBSD
community is small, but everyone knows someone, and that someone may
work in a shop that buys lots of stuff from some of these
"freeloading" vendors.  Those people can in turn push their sales
reps for some explanation as to why absent a requirement to give
back, they choose not to.  I like this plan.  Everyone needs to
spread word of this situation to people in their tech universe.

Charles


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