[Qgis-psc] QGIS for Mac OS packaging and infrastructure

[Nyall Dawson]

On Wed, 27 Mar 2019 at 06:51, Richard Duivenvoorde <rdmailings at duif.net> wrote:
>
> And IF the FOSS world is changing in a way that only $$$ can make things
> happen, then we are starting to look too much like a business/enterprise
> in my opinion. I got the same feeling when there were discussions about
> the number of releases recently. To me it started to feel like a voting
> to demand instead of asking for change.
> Are we still a FOSS-project where people do their work for 'fun'  and
> partly to get a living from it, or are we moving to a commercial entity
> in which the money part is the most important? To me it is still the first.

My 2c: we passed this point 3 years ago. For better or worse. I think
better. The reality is that the most successful and respected open
source projects all have strong commercial backing behind them (I'd
love to see an exception here... but I'm not aware of any). The more
hours people work on QGIS, the more they NEED finances to make this
possible. There's no escape from our capital driven society...

The trick is balancing being a professional, finance driven project
whilst still encouraging donations of code and new community members.
If we discourage commercial investment and the sponsored work of
Lutra, North Road, OpenGIS, Oslandia, 3liz, camptocamp, Sourcepole,
iMhere Asia, etc then we won't have anywhere near the activity we see
today. For many of us it's no longer a "partly to get a living"
matter, it's a "my livelihood DEPENDS on being paid for the work I do"
matter. We've taken the risk to drop stable work as employees for
commercial firms and instead dedicate our time to making QGIS better.

So let's be cautious in these discussions. Please don't disparage or
put down commercially backed work. Embrace the changing nature of the
project and the benefits it's given to all, and help to guide the
project to ensure that both commercial backed work AND community can
co-exist together.

Nyall

>
> It is important to have a good separation between 'community'-stuff, and
> work that is done because users/companies ask for it. I think the
> crowdfunding campaigns are a good thing: if users or important group of
> users want something, dev's can offer it and it can be 'bought'.
> But if a campaign fails: is it still worth the money?
>
> I'm also aware that we are a heterogeneous community, so my view could
> be rather extreme/idealistic compared to others. But I think one of the
> strength's of QGIS is/was the community, we should foster it; we should
> take care that we are not starting to act like a money-run business.
> People are free to start QGIS-based-business's, but please do not use
> the community for it.
>
> Regards,
>
> Richard Duivenvoorde
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