Mold 1.7 Released But May Need To Change Software License If Funding Not Secured

[SofS]

There is no need to change the code license, just change the feedback mechanism so that new features for specific use cases are paid.

The limited resource here is his know how, time and energy.

[karolherbst]

Ridiculous idea indeed. The software does not become retroactively proprietary. Anyone who has code available before relicensing has privilege to fork with AGPL.

"privilege" as in big corperations not having to pay you mean? Nobody else would be affected by the license change... also completely beyond the point, because _if_ people would contribute and support the developer, there wouldn't be that issue...

[DanL]

There is no need to change the code license, just change the feedback mechanism so that new features for specific use cases are paid.

It sounds like Rui tried that, but it's not working out too well.

[cl333r]

"privilege" as in big corperations not having to pay you mean? Nobody else would be affected by the license change... also completely beyond the point, because _if_ people would contribute and support the developer, there wouldn't be that issue...

I just don't think the project is important enough to trigger corporations to change behavior, it's simply not the kind of project that you can expect a paid full time job forever from corps.
A corporation might fork V1.7 or stop using it because the Mold leadership is dirt poor and kinky.

[direc85]

I have suggested several people they could (and should) at least once make a donation the the creator of the software they use daily. The answer is always the same: "Why? It's free!"

[curfew]

If those companies have billions, why couldn't they spend some money on adding macOS support, and therefore contributing?

It's also up to the developer to stay firm and tell these companies that he will prioritize the needs of a big sponsor. Sounds like he's just been shying away from the matter and now is finally fed up by his own incompetence on the marketing side. This outburst sounds more like greed and desperation and those attributes make you sound like a pain in the ass to deal with, so it might actually make finding partners for funding even harder...

[Klynastor]

I was actually just thinking about looking into switching all of our development processes over to using mold. But I had some doubts about using it compared to using standard GNU binutils. With binutils, there are multiple people working on it, and the future longterm availability and success of the project is pretty much guaranteed. But now the developer has just announced his intentions: he has now revealed his bus factor regarding the project, and he has now practically stated that other projects cannot rely on mold being around forever because he can pull the plug on ongoing development at any time. This is exactly the opposite thing you'd want to do when convincing more users to switch from a tried-and-true project to something new. So my answer is "nope"; I will shelf my plans for looking into mold anytime soon now.

[karolherbst]

Developers want to make a living working on cool projects actually helping (lower linking time is a great benefit actually): Please, I need some money to continue working on it, because I have to eat and pay rent.

"Users":

I was actually just thinking about looking into switching all of our development processes over to using mold. But I had some doubts about using it compared to using standard GNU binutils. With binutils, there are multiple people working on it, and the future longterm availability and success of the project is pretty much guaranteed. But now the developer has just announced his intentions: he has now revealed his bus factor regarding the project, and he has now practically stated that other projects cannot rely on mold being around forever because he can pull the plug on ongoing development at any time. This is exactly the opposite thing you'd want to do when convincing more users to switch from a tried-and-true project to something new. So my answer is "nope"; I will shelf my plans for looking into mold anytime soon now.

[Jakobson]

I understand well the pain of corporations. Buying pizzas for the whole team or donating a million to charity at the corporate level is feasible. But donating $50€ a month to some private person is difficult. That raises all kinds of suspicions of misuse of money or corruption.

[karolherbst]

I understand well the pain of corporations. Buying pizzas for the whole team or donating a million to charity at the corporate level is feasible. But donating $50€ a month to some private person is difficult. That raises all kinds of suspicions of misuse of money or corruption.

It's mostly about "what does it give us in return". If the money is gone without returning anything it's really hard to get that past accounting, because they'll complain.

Spending some money on pizza you just throw into the HR budget for "keeping people happy", which does have a small impact (even if it's slim).