Re:The Nintendo Switch uses my open source code
by VoxPelli on Monday November 23, 2020 @10:55AM
(#25188053)
What companies like Nintendo should do is to sign up for OSS support services like https://www.tidelift.com/, and whether they have or haven’t we don’t know.
Sending out free consoles would just be a marketing gimmick, and could just as well backfire as “you can’t eat a console, do Nintendo really think consoles are the way to support open source maintainers?” etc
Re:The Nintendo Switch uses my open source code
by dmix on Monday November 23, 2020 @11:21PM
(#25195238)
exactly, corporate altruism has so many ways of backfiring, your example is one great example. I can just imagine the sort of mental gymnastics Twitterers will find to be outraged at any x billion dollar company efforts to do low-tier outreach with freebies.
Just simply supporting OSS directly, as in real money, is more than enough to quiet these "they should give x freebie".
That is all the mob should be calling for as a standard practice. Not sending some random developer who happened to get popular on Twitter a nintendo.
On the other hand pushing it hard so it becomes a 'thing' would leave a bad taste in my mouth. Although rewarding OSS is something every major company should strive for (In Nintendos case specifically I'd be personally be surprised given what I've heard about Japanese corporate culture, but I'm just speculating here).
But it is indeed a good marketing strategy, at least if the HR and marketing teams were even aware of such things (ie, people who have control of sending out freebies). Which is why having technical leadership throughout the company always helps. Ultimately it will come down to an organizational thing.