Does Gentoo pays its Developers or workers ?

layman82 · n00b Joined: 30 Jun 2003 Posts: 19

I am just curious to know whether gentoo pays Wages ( like a company ) regularly for its developers, software-gallery maintainers, and other workers ?

I know gentoo is opensource but i want a little dig at its 'financial structure' ?

nadamsieee · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2003 5:03 pm Post subject:

I am not a Gentoo representative, but I do know that Gentoo, Inc. is currently not a non-profit organization. Daniel Robbins just announced a new management structure for Gentoo, which (among other things) will help Gentoo transition to a not-for-profit organization:

layman82 · n00b Joined: 30 Jun 2003 Posts: 19

With such a Answer, my curiosity for my Question has really risen ?

aja · Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2003 7:09 pm Post subject:

I'm curious - why does it matter to you?

layman82 · n00b Joined: 30 Jun 2003 Posts: 19

curious in the sense , I am amazed how gentoo manages and finances such a big developer base. That's all, I am nothing to do with gentoo, and i am not asking any Confidential matters, i hope so.

paranode · l33t Joined: 06 Mar 2003 Posts: 679 Location: Texas

I don't think anyone gets paid for it, though I don't know for sure. Isn't that why the Zynot guy split off, because he wanted some compensation for his work and didn't receive any?
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Meh.

zhenlin · Veteran Joined: 09 Nov 2002 Posts: 1361

Why pay volunteers? It would be insulting. They want to give a piece of work, not trade.

dvink · n00b Joined: 12 Apr 2003 Posts: 55

I believe that if Gentoo continues to be developed at this frightening rate, some people probably need to spend days behind the console. Moreover, I also believe that we live in a world where people get rewarded for their efforts, so if some core developers just need to get paid to keep Gentoo evolving, then so be it.

oniq · Guru Joined: 02 Sep 2002 Posts: 597 Location: Connecticut

But why must money be the reward for their efforts? If I were a Gentoo developer I'd be quite happy with the rewards of the community. I'm sure a lot of us think very highly of the Gentoo developers and their hard work.
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dvink · n00b Joined: 12 Apr 2003 Posts: 55

Oniq:

If core Gentoo developers spend days behind their consoles, they still have bills to pay. Hence each and everyone of us must make a living. Don't get me wrong, the community is certainly worth gold, but does not provide food for mouths.

nadamsieee · Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 4:28 pm Post subject:

One of the main arguments for open source/free software is the idea that people should pay developers for work performed instead of for the product itself (or license really). In that scenario a development company/developer would receive wages for developing, enhansing, supporting, and/or modifying the software but the paying party would retain all of the rights to the software granted by the GPL. For non-GPL'ish licenses you pay the developer for a restrictive license to the product itself, and development costs are built into that price.

Yet many people get offended at the idea of paying somebody to develop free software. I think it would be silly to assume that all developers want to be rewarded with praise from the user base, etc. If a developer wants (and deserves) to be paid for her work, that's just great; pay her! If not, that's fine too. Many kernel hackers are employed by Redhat, SuSe, Mandrake, and the like. Linus himself now gets paid to work full time on the kernel. Just because Gentoo, Inc. is transitioning to a not-for-profit status doesn't mean that it can't earn cash to pay developers. Whether that would be warrented/needed/appropriate is of course debatable. To each his own.

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Anacific · Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 5:24 pm Post subject:

I'd like to think of it more as "donating/thanking" rather than "paying". As dvink said, if you spend a lot of time coding free software you'll still need to manage to pay your bills.
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avenj · Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 10:09 pm Post subject:

No, we are not paid. Yes, Gentoo Technologies is currently registered as a for-profit. This is changing very soon. Meanwhile, we are not profitable.

Frankly, I would not _complain_ if I were offered the opportunity to be paid to work full-time on Gentoo, but it's not something I'm actively seeking...