For anyone unaware of the #Wordpress drama, this post on Reddit makes it reasonably easy to understand.
@dick_turpin So this is an ethical dispute? WP Engine builds a successful business on the back of an open source project and is reluctant to share back financially.
OTOH, Automattic demanding a specific amount of revenue and, when not receiving it, blocking access to resources for WP Engine isn't exactly playing nice.
I guess this scenario could play-out for any successful open source project (particularly for SaaS ones) and I don't see either party as being "on the right side" of this one.
@neil So, from a business point of view, Matt Mullenweg has a point. It's kind of the same point Elon Musk makes: "If you want to have XYZ, you have to pay." I noticed some business posts saying they were migrating elements, obviously, to "Freebie" alternatives. Ultimately, as always, it's about money and value, but more importantly, the more you immerse yourself in "Free", as in beer, the more chance you have of being caught by the balls. 🤷♂️
I like the view that 'Open Source allows competitors to collaborate'.
However plenty of Open Source projects are not true projects. If a project is significantly controlled by one entity, with differing commercial drivers. At some point, conflict is going to arise.
Can't help but think a lot of this, is someone having an ego trip. And not acting for the good of the project.
@dick_turpin The year of Linux on the desktop is subjective. For me, it was 1995 when I made GNU/Linux (Red Hat) my desktop OS.
I think many are, mistakenly, touting the year of Linux on the desktop as being when GNU/Linux can be used as a drop-in replacement for Windows or Mac OS and that'll be no time soon.
Monetising Linux has been tried many times. Canonical are doing it. Red Hat does it and others like Oracle value-add to it with their own products.
@intrbiz @neil You know, rather than keep saying: "Is this the year of the Linux desktop?" for the last twenty-five years, maybe the community would have been better served in chanting: "How can we monetise this?"
It's always made me smile when people do not understand the concept of: "It's his/her train set...."