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How would you be feeling right now if you had contributed to drupal in the same way that you contribute to joomla.

I read it that they aren't selling Drupal on its own, they are selling a value added service around Drupal. Testing, installation, implementation etc. The spam management stuff isn't Drupal specific but from Mollom for which there are pro and free versions of the service (great service btw well worth checking out)
Surely most of us who make a living from Joomla are doing exactly the same, but on a much smaller level?

@Brian... I think you make good points, and I cannot completely disagree with you. I see a lot of good things about Acquia, though. I guess I'm on the fence on this one.

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In the Joomla world everyone competes on a fairly even standing.

No one ever competes on an even footing, that's life 8). Joomlatools are going to get better clients, press coverage etc than other shops because frankly they have some amazing talent who have worked really hard over the years for the Joomla project. Are you going to argue that they shouldn't offer their knowledge as a professional service because they did have/have/had a role in Joomla's core? As a business of course they are going to use their experience as a major selling point, and to me Acquia has every right in doing the same.

Large scale businesses are going to do due diligence and in doing so can you not emphasise with them when they most likely choose a qualified world recognised service provider? If this wasn't the case I'm sure all IT departments would be running Macs by now

I'm betting that Acquia will do great things for Drupal in moving it's brand perception into new markets (large businesses) something that frankly, I feel, Joomla is going to struggle to do (even with a better core (imho) than Drupals. I'm positive that this change will reap rewards for the entire Drupal project, and for all those providing services within Drupal.

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However if there was an "official" commercial arm everything changes.

Hmm I don't see anywhere on the Acquia site or the Drupal association site where it says Acquia are the official commercial arm of Drupal. All I found was the Acquia FAQ section (http://acquia.com/about-us/faq) which states the inverse.

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See itmanagement.earthweb.c...Crisis.htm

I read the article but fail to understand the point you are trying to make. I'm not a fedora/red hat user. Are you suggesting that Acquia would be in a position to jeopardise the security of Drupal for their own personal gain? I can't see the profit in them doing this, but perhaps I'm too naive:-)