Re: Re: [HACKERS] My new job

Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>

From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: Philip Warner <pjw@rhyme.com.au>
Cc: Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>, "Ross J. Reedstrom" <reedstrm@rice.edu>, Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net>, PostgreSQL-general <pgsql-general@postgresql.org>, PostgreSQL-development <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>
Date: 2000-10-14T03:41:11Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
Philip Warner <pjw@rhyme.com.au> writes:
> When someone devotes hours of time to PGSQL for no recompense, their
> motives are generally not questioned. So when someone makes a design
> decision, the motive is assumed to be because it is best in the long term
> for the project. As soon as someone is paid to do work, their motive is (at
> least partly) to get paid. As Tom has already said, this has the potential
> to distort scheduling priorities.

A side comment here: generally committers' motives are not questioned,
but what makes you think they're doing it for no recompense?  I know
that when I first started getting involved with PGSQL, the first fixes/
changes I sent in were directly related to problems my then company
was having.  Since most uses for databases seem to be business-related,
I suspect that most people who are involved with PGSQL have at least
some connection to a business need.

The real issue is how much control does any one entity exert, and if
it's a lot, is that entity driving things in a direction that other
people don't like?

			regards, tom lane