The answer to that question may seem like a bit of a
no-brainer but apparently not. A group
of developers known as Dunc-Tank is about
to pay selected Debian developers in order to ensure that the upcoming release
of Debian is on schedule. The move has
opened up quite a bit of debate on the
question of what happened when developers who were previously working for free
suddenly receive pay for the same work. There
is one school of thought following the idea that volunteer numbers and
motivation will be reduced because they are no longer doing the work as a
gesture of goodwill or charity. On the
other side of the argument Raphaël Hertzog and Ted Ts’o (prominent members of
the Debian project) believe that despite potential drawbacks they believe that
many developers will be motivated by the more speedy evolution. Tso also cites the core kernel development as
a positive example saying I would note that most of the core kernel developers
have made the transition from volunteer to paid work, and I can’t say that I’ve
seen any negative efforts within the Linux kernel community as a result of that
change.”
A full analysis of this experiment and what it may mean for
the future of open source development can be checked out linux.com can
paid and volunteer developers work harmoniously side by side?
