Open Source. Simple in principle yet can become very complex. For example Open Source is build by volunteers who do it for many reasons but for most "ego" is one of the important reasons. And since the value that created is so high, "money" is often another reason to use (and contribute) to open source. Ego, Money and Open Source, a match made in a very warm place.

Acquia is one of the companies that is acting within the triangle money, ego and Open Source / community. Not that Dries has a big ego, but he is a person / icon in the Drupal community and hence people look at him and his "ego". And the moment you are in this triangle -despite the fact that you have been working "for free" for 7 years in such a community- people will try to seek ugly things.

Take for example this wordpress blog entry. It is full of nonsense and maybe I should turn my head and look the other way and not comment on it per point since the complete point is nonsense, but then again, if people keep writing nonsense without being put straight, other people might actually hear the echo of "nonsense" as "sense".

Let me start commenting on some of the nonsense:

Acquia then announced Certifications and Partner Program. But now the most recent job postings show they are getting into Professional Services. This clearly shows that Dries and Acquia has started to find any possible avenue to monetize the brand Drupal. And as they add more offerings, the community feels more and more cheated!

Great detective work, and yes, the WP blogger is speaking on behalf of "the community" and (s)he feels cheated on. I would say, If you feel cheated on, talk to your partner.First, if there is a brand "Drupal" then I can not see why monetizing it would be bad. I know lots and lots of companies that make money with Drupal without ever giving anything back, code wise or money wise. They are free to do so, but the moment ego Dries does it, it is a problem. Once again, talk to your partner if you feel cheated on but do not talk for the community from your anonymous WP blog

Why does the community continue to improve and contribute code back when Acquia having bigger marketing budgets and despite being relatively new is being projected as the goto Drupal shop.

Because Acquia is -like al OSS shops- the shoulders of the community. And it is in the interest of Acquia to make this community better, faster and bigger so Acquia will raise as well. Acquia stands on the shoulders of giants, but is not pissing down its neck.

Where would Acquia have been had there been no Dries?

No Dries in Acquia? Then it would be a company (like it is now). No Dries in Drupal, then maybe within another OSS project. Where would Acqia be if the parents of Dries never met? I can not see what rhetorical questions like these ad anything to the discussion. And think about this for one minute: what if Dries decided NOT to work full time proffsional on Drupal but on another proprietary JAVA CMS?

Will Acquia release all the code they are building to the community? Can there be another “Carbon” like product if someone else puts in $10mm investment and compete with Acquia?

Yes and yes. Mind you, Acquia sells services, not code. The "Give away the recipe, open up a restaurant" model. Up to now, Dries made very clear that all code that is distributed (!) is under the GPLicense, copyrighted by Acquia or not, and they will distribute it under the GPL, see also the excellent license FAQ. I would say, raise 10M and compete with Acquia, you are free to do so.

Dries owns the “Drupal” trademark and also is a key stakeholder in Acquia. Will this not create a conflict in community who now see Acquia as a threat on any work they do?

The trademark "Drupal" is owned by Dries and protected by th Drupal Association. The upcoming policy for trademark policy will be the same for Acquia as it will be for SmallDrupalShop.

There are many Drupal Local User Groups where lot of innovation is planned, architected as well as later released back. Will this slow down? Why has there been no stable Drupal 6 upgrades of many good Drupal 5 contributed modules even months after Drupal 6 release? Has the community lost interest?

Once again, totally irrelevant for the Dries-is-in-Acquia-and-now-the-sky-falls-on-our-head discussion. CCK, Views2 and the D6 discussion have nothing todo with this. You know about CCK right?

Joomla was forked from Mambo. Will we see a new leader in Drupal who truely has interest in product and not get swayed away with commercial interests?

If Dries would piss down the neck of the Drupal Community this will happen, Darwin! And you are free to become The Leader With True Interest in the Product, please do so all the lemmings will follow you Great Leader. Since Dries is /clearly/ selling out and not working many many hours per week for "nothing" on Drupal (code, association and community)

Dries now does not seem to have time for Drupal.

Yes, only 21 status updates the last 24 hours despite Drupal Association meetings, attending a full DrupalCon, running his company and talking to dozen of people. Clearly no time for Drupal.

Please, stop trying pissing down on others with your zipper still up, it smells bad and makes you look funny.