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> I hold them to very different standards

It's foolish to support a private equity against the guy because you hold him to a higher standards. It doesn't even make sense.

But this discussion is unlikely to lead anywhere.




Matt isn't being held to a higher standard, he's being held to a different standard, a standard he chose.

WP Engine is a company that chose to build a business around a piece of software released under a license that permits their commercialisation of the software.

Matt is an individual who chose to release software under a license that permits companies to build a business around the software and has then chosen to initiate a "nuclear war" against one of those companies who is complying with the license he chose to release the software under because they are not contributing to the software in a way that he deems acceptable.

They're fundamentally different actors in fundamentally different positions. WP Engine has behaved exactly as one would expect from the start. Matt has behaved in a way that suggests he has lost his damn mind, doing everything in his power to harm a business that is complying with the license he chose.

I don't disagree with the idea that WP Engine should contribute more, I don't disagree that Private Equity is harmful to Open Source, but I fundamentally disagree with Matt's weaponisation of Open Source to make a point. There is a lot of great prior thinking on this subject[1], Matt has many options, he is making the choice to behave in this way, it is not a foregone conclusion.

Our discussion isn't going to lead anywhere, but we can revisit it in a month when Matt's downward spiral has resulted in the inevitable. Perhaps, at that point, you'll reflect on whether Matt's behaviour was worth supporting.

[1] https://dri.es/solving-the-maker-taker-problem


And thus the conclusion is: It's about money. Matt is having licensor remorse. He retroactively wants to change the license and the terms.

Clearly, this isn't about OSS or PE, etc. It's about the depth of Matt's pockets. He might be drinking his own Kool Aid but few others are.

A fork of WP might not be as "productive" but at least it won't have to carry a wild monkey Matt on its back.




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