December 4th, 2006
The meaning of the OSDL lay-off
When Linux was poor it was important to have a center for it. The OSDL was that center.
The OSDL was that center mainly because it held employment contracts with Linus Torvalds and Andrew Morton. They are still there.
But Linux isn't poor any more. So while it would have been nice to know beforehand that the CEO and a third of the staff were being tossed overboard so it could focus on "legal issues" it's no longer essential.
In fact if Torvalds or Morton put themselves on the job market they might see the kind of feeding frenzy we associate with Japanese pitchers or British artists.
In fact, my old friend Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier has this about right. OSDL had a restructuring with nine laid off at this time last year.
Most of the comments I've seen so far miss the fact that former CEO Stuart Cohen is becoming a venture capitalist. Instead they focus on how little money open source projects bring in, as though OSDL were a business going under.
It's not. OSDL was a bunch of little guys getting together to push one software football across the goal line. That goal line has been crossed, and it's time to set new goals. The enterprise space has been breached. The major vendors are now on-board.
To stay relevant OSDL should focus on what's missing, and what remains missing is a legal framework all users can rely upon to avoid patent and copyright liability.
That's what it is now working on. Or am I being a pollyanna here?
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Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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