Controversy Arises Over SPI Project, Fighting With Elementary OS

While the X.Org Foundation is voting on joining SPI and the SPI already represents a range of open-source projects from PostgreSQL to Debian, this organization is being criticized this week over how they negatively interacted with the Elementary OS project.

Software in the Public Interest (SPI) is an organization that acts as a fiscal sponsor to the projects and handles their finances, assets, etc. SPI basically takes care of a lot of administrative and financial work for the projects so the projects themselves can be left to working on open-source hardware and software. Debian, OpenEmbedded, Open64, OpenWRT, LibreOffice, PostgreSQL, Arch Linux, and others are among the list of SPI associated projects.

Joshua Drake, a director at Software in the Public Interest, approached one of the Elementary OS developers about becoming associated with them for handling their finances, etc. Elementary OS is already an LLC and isn't interested in the SPI. As a result, this Elementary OS developer felt like was being "extorted" as Drake then went to go blog and spread negative publicity about the Elementary OS project.

Details about this recent SPI + Elementary OS controversy can be found via the Google+ posts here and here while it was Alberto Ruiz that summed up the situation to bring additional light onto this SPI controversy. Up to this point I haven't heard much in the way of negative views about SPI through the long process that the X.Org Foundation has been involved in for hooking up with them.