IPv6 Assignment Tracking Software

[Doug Barton]

On 4/12/2011 4:12 PM, Paul Timmins wrote:
> On 04/12/2011 06:58 PM, Doug Barton wrote:
>> FWIW, as someone who develops open source software that is sometimes
>> used by large companies, I always thought that was a perfectly
>> reasonable perspective on the part of the IPPlan author. I certainly
>> don't see anything "anti-IPv6" about it.
>
> As someone who uses open source software, large companies often don't
> feel like subsidizing a feature that will ultimately be used by everyone
> else.

That is arguably a reasonable perspective, however the end result is a 
stalemate.

OTOH, I've been fairly lucky in attracting support for specific features 
that various parties are interested in who actually *are* willing to pay 
for that support knowing that it would be contributed back to the 
community (and in fact more often than not requiring that it be 
contributed back). So the attitude you describe is by no means universal.

> There's a hundred different ways the author could have gone about
> it (take up a collection with a financial goal, publish a fixed price
> that wasn't dependent on the size of the asker) but instead shut out the
> very people who have the resources to say "screw it, if I have to pay,
> I'm just going to use my own developers for it, and with that attitude,
> I'm not submitting patches back".

I can see from your perspective how you would come to that conclusion. 
OTOH I can see the other side, where the argument basically boils down 
to, "They want me to do a whole bunch of work that won't benefit me at 
all, and they don't want to contribute to the support of that work? I 
have better things to do with my time, thank you very much." Meanwhile, 
even the mechanisms that you suggest above for soliciting support are 
actual work to implement.

All that said, if you don't like the guy's attitude, don't use his 
software. I'm pretty sure his feelings won't be hurt by that. :) What I 
personally find offensive is the attitude that he somehow had a duty to 
add IPv6 support just because people wanted it.


Doug

-- 

	Nothin' ever doesn't change, but nothin' changes much.
			-- OK Go

	Breadth of IT experience, and depth of knowledge in the DNS.
	Yours for the right price.  :)  http://SupersetSolutions.com/