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From: Pancho <Pancho.Jones@proton.me>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: rPI Goes Public
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2024 00:35:41 +0100
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On 15/06/2024 10:14, Richard Kettlewell wrote:
> Pancho <Pancho.Jones@proton.me> writes:
>> On 14/06/2024 09:44, Richard Kettlewell wrote:
>>> Personally I think the people behind the Pi deserve to get rich,
>>> they’ve made a product that’s both practically and socially useful.
>>
>> Yes, someone has done a good job, I'm not sure who that is
>> exactly. However, I don't think charities are appropriate vehicles for
>> self enrichment. If that was their goal, they should  have formed a
>> normal company.
> 
> I didn’t say that was their goal, I said that they deserved reward.

OK, if it wasn't their goal, they have no reason to expect it. 
Incentivisation doesn't apply. Lots of people deserve reward.

> The
> only person who seems to think this is some kind of mugging is you.
> 

I very much doubt I'm the only person. A quick search reveals other 
people making exactly the same “don't be evil” comparison.

I didn't say it was a mugging. I merely made a snide remark, suggesting 
they were not being transparent about motivations. I do presume that 
what they are doing is legal.

Possibly a history of working in finance gives me a different 
perspective, a cynical perspective. However, a finance background 
doesn't mean I understand what went on in the IPO, because there are a 
number of aspects of it that do confuse me. e.g. why the Employee Trust 
share holding went from 14% to 5% just before the IPO. But it is boring 
to work these things out, so I won't try.

> Nevertheless: They _have_ formed a company, namely Raspberry Pi Holdings
> plc. The people losing out, in the hypothetical where someone uses that
> company to enrich themselves beyond fair reward for the RPi achievement,
> would be the shareholders (presently including me, on a small scale).
> 

They have formed lots of companies. I'm not going to check again to see 
which role each one plays, even if there was enough public information 
to know.

No, the loss is from the beneficial treatment they received  when they 
presented themselves as a charity. Presented themselves as building a 
product altruistically, for the public good. The losers are the people 
who helped them, and the people who would have expected to benefit from 
the charitable work, who will get less than they otherwise would have. 
Computer Nerd Kev touches on some of this.

You are not a victim, you knew you were buying shares in a commercial 
organization.

There are a lot of good reasons to support and protect not for profit 
organizations delivering free/cheap technology. I would have thought I 
would have been preaching to the converted in a Linux group.