Same As The Old Boss

OK, I’ve been busy, which is why I haven’t said much recently. But in case you haven’t noticed, my old employer, the Free Standards Group, has merged with another open-source consortium (Open Source Development Labs, or OSDL) to form the Linux Foundation. I’ve survived the merger, and am still doing most of what I was doing before.

The reaction has been pretty good so far, and even the criticism we are getting has resulted in a good amount of support in our defense.

Suspicion isn’t out of place. The new group will have to earn its reputation, just as the old organizations did. But I think we’re in a good position to show that we’re not about “combin[ing] open source with all the worst aspects of the proprietary commercial software industry” (see the critical link above, last paragraph). Our management is the same as the old groups, and both groups have established records of improving the quality of open source. Is it that hard to believe that we would do more of the same after the merger?

As for me, I’m going to be doing pretty much the same stuff I was doing before, only with a few more helpers. What could be bad about that?

UPDATE (2007-02-16): I had given the impression that OSDL’s management was entirely gone from the new organization, which is not true.  Sorry, guys!