[jacobr1]

I think that idea is you start with a the basis of a mutually agreed upon mission, rather than produce rationalization to retroactively justify the work.

This can be hard if people came to the project for difference reasons and it is an interesting point, because missions can be narrowly or broadly defined. They can be framed in terms of a variety of ends.

But if you can agree on what the common ground looks like ... which might beed a BDFL or steering committee, then you can proceed from that point.

I don't think there is any way to get around the potential for misuse or misappropriation though. Either those concerns are in scope or out of scope of the project. The framing of a mission presumes they are ignored unless explicitly accounted for the in the mission itself.

Is the mission of the Linux Kernel to build a core of a "free" in the GNU/stallman sense OS? Or is to just build a world-class os for diverse environment that just happens to be copy-left licensed as a means to encourage broad participation? If maintainers of proprietary drivers needs more hoo