Re:Stop Building on Corporate-Controlled Languages
by spankalee on Wednesday January 18, 2023 @01:55PM
(#34431185)
> The alternative is to keep it open-source
I can't imagine that there would be a reason to close it to work on it at Google. That would be a very unusual situation.
> This isn't just a side project for me.
Then you probably made the right decision to work on it full time, but only as an alternative to working on it part time. If Google would have paid you to work on it full time, there really isn't any risk. If they ever tell you to work on something else, you can still quit.
> How is Google stopping funding a OSS project any worse than Google never funding it in the first place?
Think this through. Let's say they spin up a team to work with me on it (which honestly is the only point of giving them Vale at all). Then suddenly, they shut down the entire team and harvest the headcount for some other project. That's devastating, projects don't survive that kind of sudden exodus. I could quit and work on it solo, but then I'm one person trying to pick up the pieces and work through the technical debt and missing knowledge of an entire team. It would take _years_ to recover from that.
The alternative is to keep it open-source, work with volunteers, and eventually do what Zig did: make an open-source-centric 501(c)(3) and hire people to help.
What you say makes sense if I just want to keep this a side-project. This isn't a side project, it's my life's work at this point.