Robert Merkel answers questions on /. but leaves me with 1

[Linas Vepstas]

Hi,


On Thu, Jul 05, 2001 at 05:41:29PM -0500, Bill Gribble was heard to remark:
> On Thu, Jul 05, 2001 at 03:25:44PM -0400, Paul Lussier wrote:
> > Slashdot has posted answers to questions about GnuCash posed last 
> > week.  In one his answers, Robert states:
> > 
> > 	Gnumatic sponsored GnuCash development for about a year. Like
> > 	a lot of other small companies, Gnumatic got in financial
> > 	trouble during the Bust. Thanks to the GPL, the work done on
> > 	GnuCash during 2000 was not lost, and the developers were able
> > 	to start a new company (LDG) to continue the work.
> 
> Actually, I wrote that.  The answers were sort of collaborative.
> 
> I bear neither Linas nor Gnumatic ill will, but I'm tired of dodging
> questions like yours because I think that answering truthfully will
> make Linas mad.  

I don't get mad as long as we can stick to the truth.

> I don't want to have a lengthy discussion about this
> whole subject (it's pretty painful) but I feel like the Gnucash
> community shouldn't be kept in the dark.
> 
> Gnumatic was founded in (I believe) Feb 2000 as a partnership between
> Linas Vepstas and Linux Global Partners.  Linas is really the only one
> that can speak to its current status and goals.  I started working for
> Gnumatic in about March 2000 and left in May 2001.
> 
> Gnumatic was in financial trouble from late 2000 on because LGP didn't
> come through with all the money they promised. People weren't getting
> paid, hadn't been paid for a while, and there were no prospects of
> them getting paid any time soon.  The staff was incredibly patient
> through a long period of working without pay while waiting for the
> money that LGP continually promised was right around the corner.
> 
> I was able to raise enough money privately to make a serious offer to
> buy the company.  I incorporated Linux Developers Group to be the
> "instrument" through which the purchase would be made, planning to
> continue to operate under the name Gnumatic after the dust settled.
> Unfortunately, LGP wasn't really interested in my offer, and the
> attempt to buy Gnumatic fell through.

>From the Gnumatic viewpoint, the terms of the offer were not realistic.
It did not make sense to accept the offer.

> At that time, I left my job at Gnumatic in order to devote my time to
> starting up the new company as a real going concern.  The remaining
> development staff of Gnumatic also left their jobs and joined me,
> except for Linas, who stayed as Gnumatic's CEO and only employee.

Gnumatic is struggling to survive and to refocus on software development
contracting.  Gnumatic is trying to position itself as a 'general
contractor', working with subcontractors skilled in specific areas,
in order to tackle larger and more complex projects.  We currently
have a pool of 40 subcontractors knowledgable in Linux and Windows
that we can draw on, and I am working trying to set up more
relationships that will allow Gnumatic to offer a more complete
offering.  

I would like to focus the company on Gnu/Linux financial software
systems, but in fact, the current skill base is broader than that,
so we're willing to take on all sorts of work.

--linas




> Linux Developers Group employees will continue to work on Gnucash and
> related projects indefinitely.  We want to use the Gnucash source code
> as a toolset for custom financial software for small business and
> e-commerce.  This means we will probably focus work on more
> business-related features in the near term.  However, personal users
> should not be concerned; a change that will probably be made soon will
> be to break gnucash up into "modules" that can be loaded or not if you
> don't need the functionality, so you won't have to load up a lot of
> business features if you don't want them.
>  
> We will be releasing Gnucash on CD within the next several months, but
> there will probably not be an extensive support program and we will be
> selling through limited channels (probably one on-line vendor plus
> possible direct sales through our website).
> 
> I hope this answers your questions.
> 
> Thanks,
> Bill Gribble
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
> 
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-- 
Linas Vepstas -- linas@gnumatic.com -- http://www.gnumatic.com/