The Linux name can be profitable

By Sam Varghese
Monday, 11 December 2006 04:15

Opinion and Analysis

The Open Source Development Labs sacked nine people in 2005, and the explanation offered was "OSDL has reduced its staff in sales, marketing, business development and programming."

At the time, well-respected and senior Linux kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman said in his web diary that among those cut loose were "very talented and experienced Linux kernel developers and testers."

"These are subsystem and driver maintainer-level kernel people, who really understand the community and how to get stuff done in the kernel and have loads of experience doing just that," he wrote. "OSDL cut them as part of a 'budget reduction' restructure."

In 2004, OSDL had about $US8.2 million in revenues and paid its officers and directors $US507,278. The figures are not difficult to find as the OSDL's IRS 990 form is freely available on the web.

Yet in May 2005, OSDL said the lab's mission had changed in the past year and it had decided to realign its investments accordingly.

This is the same organisation which says on its IRS form 990: "The purpose of the corporation includes supporting and advancing the creation of a technical and business environment in the computer industry for Linux and open source software."