OSDL to fund a kernel tech writer [LWN.net]

OSDL to fund a kernel tech writer

Posted Nov 7, 2006 21:43 UTC (Tue) by s_cargo (guest, #10473)
In reply to: OSDL to fund a kernel tech writer by donbarry
Parent article: OSDL to fund a kernel tech writer

If those that contribute funds consider his salary excessive, they can either say so or contribute less. If they think he's worth it, so be it.

If you think you can do the same or better job for less pay, then submit your resume.

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OSDL to fund a kernel tech writer

Posted Nov 7, 2006 22:10 UTC (Tue) by Zack (guest, #37335) [Link]

If this were a commercial entity there would be no problem. But I fail to see how (as this entity purports to be part of a community where rewards are based on merit) blowing half a million dolllars on a single person can be warranted.

Perhaps the push to ridicule GNU/Linux and just call it "Linux" is indeed really practical, just in very a business sense way.

OSDL to fund a kernel tech writer

Posted Nov 8, 2006 19:36 UTC (Wed) by eklitzke (subscriber, #36426) [Link]

The OSDL is run like a business, just like nearly every other NPO in America. They are competing against wealthy commercial companies like Microsoft and Sun to promote open source software. To compete in that kind of environment, they need to attract the best people possible, and sometimes that means paying large salaries.

I'm sure they could find someone willing to run the OSDL for less pay, but I doubt that person would be as experienced or effective at doing what Stuart Cohen does -- pushing Linux in business, academia, etc.

OSDL to fund a kernel tech writer

Posted Nov 8, 2006 20:38 UTC (Wed) by Zack (guest, #37335) [Link]

>To compete in that kind of environment, they need to attract the best people possible,

They already did, you can find them on LKML and various mailing lists around the world

I'm sorry:
"OSDL fellowship will fill the gap for a long-awaited technical writer for
Linux kernel" is just too much irony here. They could have it documented in Swahili by now.

If I was in this to feed the fat cats I would send my cheques directly to Ballmer. At least he gets up on stage and dances for his money.

OSDL to fund a kernel tech writer

Posted Nov 9, 2006 3:34 UTC (Thu) by dlang (subscriber, #313) [Link]

so don't donate any money to OSDL if you feel that they are just fat cats out to absorb your money.

but the fact is that the l-k list and all the other mailing lists have not attracted sufficant interest from people who are good at writing documentation. this is why OSDL is going to pay someone to work on this full time.

documentation is one of those jobs that needs to be done, but very few people find it fun (at least not as fun as other things that they can do), so when you have a job that needs doing, and the fun of doing it isn't enough compensation, then the solution is to pay someone to do the job and add money to the compensation side of the ledger.

accordeing to Andrew Morton OSDL has also expressed interest in paying someone to do the thankless job of tracking known bugs and regressions, and trying to get the maintainers/developers of that area to address them (this is something that Andrew does himself from time to time. everyone agrees that the kernel would be better if it was done more, but Andrew has other things to do). This is another job that nobody has voluntered for in the last 15 years of development.