Re: [board-discuss] Enable TDF to contribute more code to LibreOffice with in-house developers to address our donors specific needs

Hi Andreas!

On Tue, Feb 8, 2022 at 5:59 PM Andreas Mantke <maand@gmx.de> wrote:

> but it wouldn't improve the situation, if - like today - the experienced
> fisherman / fishermen take every new talented fisher immediately from
> the free software developer (volunteer) market.
>
> Thus there is now chance for a divers market with a lot of small and
> local businesses around the LibreOffice project. Thus the (business)
> user of LibreOffice will not get the opportunity to choose between
> different service provider.
>
> If this situation will not change immediately the LibreOffice
> certification program will not give a competitive edge.

Do you believe TDF could spend donated funds on the salaries of developers
who write LibreOffice, Andreas? As I recall when we were on the Board you
asserted this would be an improper use of TDF's funding under its bylaws?


For those unaware: TDF has previously extensively considered the proposal
to employ LibreOffice developers, which is, as Daniel has commented,
superficially very appealing. However, wanting something is not the same as
it being possible to have something! The reasons we do not currently have
internal developers include (among others):

   1. The question of whether TDF can spend money developing software. It
   has been asserted that it cannot.
   2. The question of who would decide what was written, and how, and how
   developers would be properly managed.
   3. Related to this, the moral imperative that TDF should not compete
   with its trustees.

While I do not necessarily agree with the thinking behind these issues, any
proposal before the Board would need a thoughtful and balanced proposal for
resolving each of them. Perhaps one of the folk supporting the Board agenda
item would like to write a paper that does that?

Cheers

Simon