[ros-dev] when will I return Magnus Olsen aka GreatLord

[Steven Edwards]

On Thu, Jun 19, 2008 at 6:36 PM, Magnus Olsen <magnus at greatlord.com> wrote:
> One thing more do not forget that steven is starting paying some of the devs
> in
> ReactOS , he and fireball are trying to go Commercial so they trying
> shutdown ReactOS and make it into project codename unros. This info is not
> public and only few devs known of it, and of cures he will deny this.

Now this is just not right. I've talked to several developers off list
about my plans to make a ReactOS product. Never once has it included
anything about shutting down ReactOS. Thats just not feasible even if
I wanted to. I want ReactOS to be a success. I want it to get respect
from the Free Software community. I kept people in the dark about my
plans because of legal reasons. I was leaving my former employer and
being offered a severance. The company I started is making competing
products to my former employer. Legally if my former boss knew ahead
of time that I was going to start a competitor it could have been
viewed by his share holder as a failure of his fiduciary duty by
knowing paying someone that was going to start a competitor.

Since that has ended I've been very clear about the project and its
business plan. A ReactOS product called the BordeauxOS for VMs mainly
targeting the Mac platform as its the only major platform with market
share that does not include OEM licenses for Windows so using ReactOS
instead of Windows for legacy applications would be a cost savings for
Bordeaux customers.

The only thing even remotely like what you describe above that I have
done is I asked developers if they would be willing to license their
code gplv2 or later and if we could slowly work to convert the tree so
at some future date. If I needed to convince investors that their
investment would be secure I could say "We have the option of release
under a slightly more restrictive Free Software license the GPLv3".
Where ReactOS would still be GPLv2 or later, BordeauxOS would have the
option of releasing some or all of its patches under either license.
Fireball had nothing to do with that discussion and it was mainly with
1 major contributor to which I am not aware you were privy to the
discussion. I didn't ask it publicly because I know how heated the
discussion was lastime and I figured I would start with the most major
contributors first. I don't want to see ReactOS change anything
(except maybe adopt git =P), I want it to still be GPLv2. I want
fireball to still be in charge, all I want is to build a business
where we can pay people to work on the parts that don't get the love
they need so it will be usable and not just a hobby OS.

-- 
Steven Edwards

"There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and
that is an idea whose time has come." - Victor Hugo