[development] enterprise needs

[qomo]

Ben,
Dries and chx are really nice people when you talk with them in person.
I agree with you that Drupal's lack of backwards compatibility makes it
difficult for enterprise users.  One of the biggest enterprise users
told me he plans to never upgrade.  Other enterprise users I spoke with
about this  have reached the same conclusion.  

I've heard it said that if Drupal were forced to choose between the
little 'guy', and corporate users, Drupal will choose the little person
every single time.  For Dries this is a labor of love.  An example of
what (one of) motivates him is that someone with a terminal/serious
disease can reach out and find help through Drupal.    Helping some big
corporation save money is not what motivates him to give so much of his
time to Drupal.  Many people working with Drupal/civicspace are
motivated by the idea of  empowering the individual/"masses." 

(of course large non-profits also are enterprise users.)

I would guess there's a 25% probability that an enterprise fork will
develop that is backwards compatible.  I do think that will be necessary
for Drupal to become accepted in the corporate world.  At the conference
we talked about having an enterprise user group and/or an enterprise
mailing list.  Perhaps that can happen

Enterprise users do have a lot to offer the community in terms of
putting modules back in and donations.

I think it's great you've written so much code.  Thank you.  I hope you
can find a way to make Drupal fit your needs.

Ann