• intensely_human@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    Especially after I’ve bankrolled GrapheneOS, Ladybird and all my favourite FOSS projects.

    According to the book The Starfish and the Spider, which is about decentralized organization versus centralized organization, the Spanish Empire was able to defeat the previously-undefeatable Apache resistance by giving gifts of horses to some of the Apache leaders. It provided them status, creating a hierarchy, turning the Apache society into the sort of thing that could be destroyed in conventional battle.

    Not saying it’s a very tight analogy, but I would be wary of changes in team culture resulting from a project going from volunteer based to well-funded.

    Obviously open source projects need resources, such as servers and github accounts and all that, but spirits change when resource flows change, and projects excel or flub on spirit.