An idea for commercial support for D

[Zach the Mystic via Digitalmars-d]

On Sunday, 4 January 2015 at 08:31:23 UTC, Joakim wrote:
> This is an idea I've been kicking around for a while, and given 
> the need for commercial support for D, would perhaps work well 
> here.
>
> The notion is that individual developers could work on patches 
> to fix bugs or add features to ldc/druntime/phobos then sell 
> those closed patches to paying customers.  After enough time 
> has passed, so that sufficient customers have adequately paid 
> for the work or after a set time limit beyond that, the patch 
> is open sourced and merged back upstream.  It would have to be 
> ldc and not dmd, as the dmd backend is not open source and the 
> gdc backend license doesn't allow such closed patches.

A funny scenario based on this proposal: Company A wants feature 
B, and signs a contract with a developer for a certain amount, 
receiving the feature as soon as possible, releasing the paid-for 
software to the public after a year. During that year, company C 
comes to the same developer wanting the same feature. They say, 
"It's already paid for, but you can pay company A half the 
development cost, minus the proportion of time left before it's 
open to everyone, and you can both have it!" Or something like 
that.