My thesis is that when you don't have the pressure of VC funding (gotta hit the revenue numbers you promise to investors sooner or later), alignment between the business and the OSS community isn't as tough to find.
I'd agree with that. Your message sounded to me like you thought VC funding was desirable for software projects. I wonder why we can't just fund software like a regular business- why look for venture returns?
That works great! I think the best money to get to run a business comes from customers. Bootstrapping is great.
However, just like fewer homes would be owned if you didn't have mortgages, less software companies would exist without VC. It's basically a subsidy from the rich, endowments and pensions, to the rest of us (consumers because we get stuff for free, developers because it increases the demand and thus salaries for us).
I think VC is a net benefit to the world in terms of software delivered and companies built. I think OSS is a net benefit to the world because of the explosion of possible ideas and the leverage it lets developers have as they build on it.
I would love to see these two huge innovations in building software work together well. Haven't seen it yet, hence my original comment.
