Re: [Qemu-devel] Donation model for opening the accelerator?

[John Wells]

Brad Campbell <address@hidden> said:

Regarding lost compensation in the event of missing the goal, I for one 
would be
happy to mark it up to contributing in general, but I do see your point.

> Now, I have been using software that Fabrice wrote dating back to 
> lzexe (which was just the ducks
> nuts for a poor student with a small hard disk), and I'd be happy to 
> chuck some dosh his way any day
> of the week, but if asking for community sponsorship is going to 
> defeat the goal of attaining
> commercial sponsorship then I can go with that too.

Absolutely...I totally agree.

> Seriously, as a company would you talk about stumping up the clams 
> required to open a product if you
> knew the community was going to do it for you?

My fear is not that a commercial entity will provide the necessary funding to
open source the accelerator...that would be ideal.  My fear is that a
commercial entity will attempt to pay to *keep* the project closed source,
and/or to make the accelerator non-free.

And, I really think Qemu has the potential to be one of the last pieces in the
Linux desktop puzzle...it allows users who would otherwise be unable to switch
(the 80/20 rules) from Windows to Linux to make the jump.

Anyway, either way I'm happy and hope Fabrice gets the compensation he 
deserves.

John