Sponsor An Open Source Driver Dev For a $1 a Day???

[bug!]

If it becomes milestone-based then count me out. I wouldn't want my employer to pay me only when software was released or bugs fixed, so I don't think it's fair to ask somebody else to be paid like that. Expenses are regular (rent, food, electricity etc), so I think the developer's remuneration should be too. Unless the idea is that this is for people who already have jobs but want some extra cash.

Aside from that, wouldn't a milestone based system discourage somebody from refactoring code as necessary, incentivising them to rush something out that meets the milestone but isn't of such high quality? "Sorry it's ugly guys, I wanted to pay my rent".

If we pay them on a hourly/daily/weekly/mothly basis, they have the tendency to get lazy.
Think of it this way:
"Sorry guys, I'm not really in the mood to work hard today, but who cares, I'll get paid either way."

If it is milestone based, then they will be motivated to work harder.

Remember, they are the ones who got paid to write it, therefore they are the ones who have to make sure their work is up to standards.

As I said, someone knowledgable of OpenGL/Mesa/Gallium3D should lead this project, as they know how long it would take to implement feature X, and how much it is "worth", including all the structural changes/bug fixes/etc.

I'll support this project either way, but milestone based is, in my opinion, better suited.

[archibald]

If we pay them on a hourly/daily/weekly/monthly basis, they have the tendency to get lazy.
Think of it this way:
"Sorry guys, I'm not really in the mood to work hard today, but who cares, I'll get paid either way."
If it is milestone based, then they will be motivated to work harder.

I understand the idea you are trying to convey, but I think it is oversimplified. It also seems to suggest that everybody should be paid on commission in case they become lazy. The AMD and Intel open source teams seem to do quite well despite being paid a regular salary - I doubt many would stick around if they didn't have a regular income: I imagine inconsistency would be quite hard when mortgages and food bills come in a regular cycle.