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> The direction that rails goes in is the direction that Basecamp wants it to go in. Basecamp is a privately owned company. Who do you think owns the IP?

it’s demonstrably false. both github and shopify have made significant contributions to the direction of rails. also individuals who were eventually hired by big rails/ruby users. i think such was the case for tenderlove and schneems for example. according to the rails license[0], dhh owns the ip.

you could shift your perspective to see if this makes sense. companies heavily invested in certain open source projects hire (1) people already familiar with and have been contributing to the project, or (2) people totally new to the project but mandated to participate in maintenance and development given its a key infrastructure. this, imo, is how open source should be maintained: companies with skin the game commit to its survival. the current model of paying money to someone not in the employ of anyone (and so maybe doesn’t use the project themselves) is bound to lead to the current pay me or i abandon the project.

[0]: https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/main/MIT-LICENSE



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