Philip Warner <pjw@rhyme.com.au> writes:
> When someone devotes hours of time to PGSQL for no recompense, their
> motives are generally not questioned. So when someone makes a design
> decision, the motive is assumed to be because it is best in the long term
> for the project. As soon as someone is paid to do work, their motive is (at
> least partly) to get paid. As Tom has already said, this has the potential
> to distort scheduling priorities.
A side comment here: generally committers' motives are not questioned,
but what makes you think they're doing it for no recompense? I know
that when I first started getting involved with PGSQL, the first fixes/
changes I sent in were directly related to problems my then company
was having. Since most uses for databases seem to be business-related,
I suspect that most people who are involved with PGSQL have at least
some connection to a business need.
The real issue is how much control does any one entity exert, and if
it's a lot, is that entity driving things in a direction that other
people don't like?
regards, tom lane