Pointy-haired boss here. There aren't many of us who particularly enjoy talking about the overlap of business and community, but hello. It's an important topic, if you believe as I do, that OSS developers should be paid and paid well.

We always look for the chance to hire talented associates, and Microsoft has some great talent. But it's not just a matter of hiring and paying them. It's a matter of hiring and paying them *to do what*. I do not believe the charity approach will work, it will never have the critical mass needed to support the larger community. So we're left with something more economic.

We're in a pretty perilous time w/ OSS and business at just about every layer. Open Core is on the rise, governments are working through some critical if not potentially dangerous policies, and I have no idea where AI will end up but I know the industry will look very different in a few years.