[gentoo-dev] Re: Please stay on-topic.

[james]

On 12/08/2016 02:15 PM, Andreas K. Huettel wrote:
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> Am Donnerstag, 8. Dezember 2016, 15:08:17 schrieb james:
>> On 12/07/2016 04:39 PM, Robin H. Johnson wrote:
>>> On Wed, Dec 07, 2016 at 04:01:53PM -0500, james wrote:
>>>> Can you cross post to gentoo-dev? I'm not subscribed to that list.
>>>> Should not a wider community, particularly devs be part of the
>>>> discussion?
>>>
>>> Please DO subscribe.
>>
>> Nope. I strongly believe that if your wider dev community had a deeper
>> understanding of the responsibility chain...
> <snip>
>
> Even if I'm repeating myself... Please keep the mailing lists on topic.

Problems caused by gentoo developer behaviors, are "on topic" for this 
list. Your position only serves to obfuscate remedies.


> While the topics of gentoo-project are widespread, conspiracy theories and US
> politics are definitely not on-topic here.


And this sort of analysis is at the heart of why Gentoo is going to be
categorized, as a "Boys Club" or a "tax dodge" or a "Fiefdom in the eyes 
of the IRS. The Gentoo Code of Conduct is quintessentially important to 
future viability of the distro. The devs all need to hear about these 
issues. Read on and you will see an action plan, the reasons for it and 
bit more detail, for those that require a bit more anecdotal evidence. 
Satisfactory resolution can not be achieved by the Council, nor the 
Foundation. It must be embraced by the wider gentoo dev community. In 
fact  remedies proposed here can be implemented by a hand full of astute 
devs, should their convictions diverge from the council or foundation. 
Therefore, this is a paramount issue for those with dev status and those 
of us that have been participating with gentoo for quite a few years and 
have first hand witnessed these dev-induced malfeasant actions.



*please listen* and we can save this distro from the fiefdom of 
constrained control, largely made possible by the dev community and the 
senior (privileged) devs whom also  have a tainted history with Gentoo.
Many senior devs have "clean hands" as we all know. Gentoo is not alone, 
  there is, Alpine linux, now the fiefdom of Docker, and the linux 
kernel project are both viable candidates too, for scrutiny. In fact 
there are many charity-tech  organizations (particularly 501(c) which 
can be portrayed as not being open but merely tax-avoidance schemes; 
this effects us all, deeply.


> Also, to confirm what robbat2 suggested, Gentoo Foundation organizational
> questions including how to deal with the IRS (should that even be discussed on
> a publicly archived list?) find their best audience on the nfp list.

This can all be cleaned up. But decisive action needs to occur. Just 
read on or lodge your complaints with the Council if you feel the need.


> After all, whoever wants to participate can subscribe there, and whoever
> doesn't subscribe there probably doesn't *want* to hear about it.

Where are you statistics?  Let's hold a vote and ask gentoo-users to 
participate, if they like. A move to silence would be very interesting
as a point of argument against your position. Perhaps Mr. Robbins can 
weigh on his experiences and perspectives? Other, bitter devs that have 
left? Countless others that have been mistreated (at least in their 
eyes) during their attempted journey to dev status?


SO::

Only three things need to occur, to fix this mess. The past is not a 
problem, if when confronted with the truth the distro leaders take 
significant corrective actions. Converting what accounting records are 
known to gnucash, is trivial. So here are (3) actionable steps that can 
be achieved in short order and some of the reasons from the IRS point of 
view as to why they are of timely, actionable significance.


(1) A GLEP that expedites and makes forking gentoo, relative as easy as 
possible.

(2) An easy and straightforward method(s) to install gentoo. Stage-4, 
CD, ansible, ignition etc etc.

(3) A documented pathway to become a dev on gentoo, with all 
requirements, tests and re-testing documented fairly and applied to all, 
new devs and existing devs alike.



Why (1)::  This allows most anyone be a gentoo dev. Lots of viable forks 
can be a home for learning, training and development of a wide diversity 
of different levels on technical competence, demonstrated by 
successfully being 'a gentoo or gentoo-fork developer'.  Technologies 
like Java, could easily be supported should they choose to allow 
non-sources into the ebuild process, for their gentoo-forked-distro. 
Each fork can have their own dev rules. Anyone can fork gentoo and the 
master of that fork, manages that gentoo-sub-culture as they deem 
reasonable. Migration to dev-proper, can be a more difficult pathway, 
but needs to be open and fair. Training is conducted in the forks; one 
fork could be just for training for those seeking dev-status in 
gentoo-proper. Seriously, being a dev is no big deal. The quintessential 
quality or skill, is knowing which ebuilds  to monkey with which ebuilds 
to leave alone.

This enables (by active promotion) any individual, corporation or 
business to benefit from a deployment of gentoo or a customized version 
of gentoo, just like a privileged few corporations have benefited 
(google, CoreOS etc). Without many companies at least testing and some 
using gentoo, Gentoo is mostly a fiefdom of certain companies. This is 
evidenced by the history of devs that work at these companies and have 
been or currently are gentoo devs. It's back-channel control, evidenced 
by irc and other venues where only certain folks can listen. Since we 
can assume the IRS and various other governmental agencies, and some 
private companies like google, pretty much have every bit and byte of 
gentoo's history logged; let's not pretend that the past is some big 
unknown. It is hidden and camouflaged from the public, particularly the 
older issues and evidence streams, but that's really not a problem, once 
lawyers get involved. Much is publically available too. It's just how 
things occurred.

Forking Gentoo just opens up and encourages all to benefit from 100% 
source builds, gentoo style.



Why (2):: When the IRS looks at gentoo, the most common tool and metric 
they'll use is "What do the other charities in this category do?"

Statistically, linux distros have 'an automated or semi-automated' 
installation. Since gentoo has had many, including stage-4, CD and usb
and such, it can be viewed as a vindictive policy that only serves to 
block others while creating a control mechanism to the point of 
exclusion. The current artificial barriers to installation, aka "follow 
the handbook" will be viewed by discerning eyes as a significant
and unnecessary obstruction to wider public use. Any dev can make 
arguments as the virtues of a painful, manual install, but economically 
it is an unnecessary blocker or a recalcitrant hindrance to progress and 
that is one of easy pathways to justify re-classification of gentoo, as 
a fiefdom. A lack of easy installation semantics, is intentional, 
destructive, and economically disadvantages small companies and most 
individuals from the wonderful benefits of Gentoo. In the eyes of the 
IRS, a fiefdom is often more serious than a known "criminal enterprise". 
If you do not believe me, find a retired IRS agent and ask them in their 
experiences, what the IRS does to a fiefdom, masquerading as a charity?



WHY (3):: Update the exam every (2) years and require all devs take the 
exam to re-qualify. Publish the old exams  and correct answers, once the 
exams are updated. It's about ensuring a basic knowledge base and should 
be allowed to be re-taken, without restriction until correct. IRC is 
vindictive and there are numerous cases where than can easily be 
established by the legal community as corrosive, at best, to those that 
are the victims. That's why everybody else has written exams, once they 
have been sued (in the corporate world). Linux distros live in a 
different world and no doubt many enjoying the benefits of 501(c) 
status, and have many of the same types of problems as Gentoo.



The dev community is constrained and undocumented as to how to become a 
dev., historically. Immediately create a written exam that is all one 
has to pass be a gentoo dev and combine that with other reasonable 
requirements and a few ebuilds created from scratch. Require all devs to 
take the written exam, on a bi-annual basis. As many retries as 
necessary to pass should the exam should be generously available. New 
EAPI skills are just one temporal development that should be the target 
of the dev exams. Dev status should be about a fair and open assessment 
of skills and historical accomplishments (your body of ebuild works). 
The current irc-oral-nighmare examination is merely a prejudicial 
blocker (ask an attorney) that can be and has been applied subjectively. 
There is nothing wrong with posting the questions and answers to 
previous exams; in fact that should be routine. Being a gentoo dev, to 
be legally fair, should be about obtaining a certification, much like 
RHEL or Cisco or other relevant technical standards. Right now, it a 
boys club, that can easily be viewed as a significant and unnecessary 
'cost barrier to entry' to an extraordinarily valuable fiefdom.


CoreOS is little more than binary gentoo, with a few slick management 
tools, although I guessing they'd beg to differ. It's easy to install 
and easier to manage, with our without a formal business relationship. I 
like CoreOS, I think it's great. But my point is they have automated 
installation, and share those codes. So Gentoo's position on making it 
so dam convoluted to install and refusing to offer any form of simple, 
CD based install, is extremely prejudicial to new folks interested in 
the power of gentoo. That is the essence of a fiefdom. We have 
assimilated a wide variety of CoreOS ebuilds into gentoo, to lower their 
cost of ebuild management, one could argue. But the complete set  of 
CoreOS ebuilds required to bring gentoo up to commercial viability has 
intentionally been not supported. Just go read about CoreOS's "ignition" 
or "bare-metal" it's a robust method to install from bare metal, before 
systemd or other init system commitments have  to be instantiated. 
Simply brilliant and totally awesome!

One could argue that systemd is being promoted as an additional false 
blocker on gentoo and the wider linux distros. This "favoring of 
systemd" when the rank and file users of gentoo favor anything but 
systemd, only furthers the arguments of collusion between  distro and 
linux kernel blockers to competition.  Before you argue, show me the 
cluster codes and the wiki pages within gentoo, and detail how to build 
a Gentoo cluster, that does not rely on Systemd. I do not wish to argue 
systemd at the gentoo level, but do wish to include systemd policy at 
the linux-kernel-level as a blocker to free and open competition from 
traditional Open source /linux/uinx. In the entire history of linux 
there has never been such an orchestrated and contrive  and required 
piece of linux kernel code, that violates so many historical semantics 
of both linux and open source as systemd.  CHOICE, the mantra of FOSS 
and linux is being severely and artificially constrained by the 
commercial interests behind systemd.  The uptake of systemd is the 
smoking gun of evidence that many tech projects, proclaiming to be 
charities are, in deed, a ruse for constrained, monopolistic behavior, 
orchestrated by the few that have beneficial relationships with specific 
corporations. It's not speculation it is the basis of valid economic 
arguments that can be use by the IRS, in the name of taxation, Homeland 
security, and in the name of a national security threat. Any number of 
hungry lawyers that just need a payday can participate. So this tainted 
behavior by the linux kernel folks now infects most linux distros and it 
is anti-competive at best and most likely monopolistic and vindictive, 
were it to be litigated fully. Luckily, I'm not sure the new 
administration has the talent to litigate or resolve this sort of 
monopolistic behavior. The fact that such actions can bring in billions 
of dollars to the federal treasury, well, I'm not so sure that's not of 
extreme interest to the new  leaders of the IRS.





Now any senior Gentoo dev and the council may classify this next part as 
"conspiracy theory" but it's not. It's reality and it does effect all of 
the gentoo linux community, the wider linux user folks and 501(c) 
organizations that use or are integral to the linux community::

The new administration is going to need billions/trillions of dollars to 
finance the rebuilding of American industry (fact). The IRS is their 
chief agent to "bring in the revenues" (fact). The IRS can reclassify 
the linux kernel project, as a tax dodge, a fiefdom and a threat to 
national security, for a large array of previous "sins". (needs to be 
proven, but the way the IRS works, they "squeeze" but one company, the 
word get's and the deal cutting commences in a fury-rush to settle) (so 
FACT). This "squeeze" automatically makes any number of Large 
Corporations, around the world, tax liable (fact) and motivated to 
appease the new leadership team (we shall see).

Many global corps will sell out to cut a quick deal, and pay all sorts 
of fees, penalties and back taxes  to cover the value of what the linux 
kernel has done for their product sales. I.E. they pay the linux kernel 
taxes on behave of their interest and gains for using a tax-dodge like 
the linux-kernel. There will be a rush to  move industry back to the US. 
Trump has to do very little, other than grant audiences and take victory 
laps, as he chooses. Naturally, Trump, being a deal maker will bring 
back millions of jobs and thousands of manufacturing facilities to US 
controlled soil.  This return is strategic to national defense, so even 
what's left of the establishment-corrupted-republicans are going to have 
to get on-board (speculation), they'll be allowed to funnel some 
proceeds to the DoD, as is always the goal of establishment republicans. 
Democrats will be glad and supportive  as jobs for their constituents 
will also be in the mix of benefits.

Likewise Brexit, Italy, china and others will smartly-rush to complete 
their industrial bases and local markets so all the world will prosper.
Those H1B visas folks here in the US, dude, international VCs and 
Globalist organizations are all going to start a rigorous recruitment of 
that talent, so as to build up their  home nations. India reigns supreme 
here, but all will look to incentivize those H1B folks to return home 
and enjoy commercial prosperity and be part of their own, national 
resurgence. Trump will champion the prosperity rights of those H1B visa 
folks that return home asap and their homeland governments will join in 
to, welcoming home those H1B visa folks, many which have been abused by 
global corporations while here in the US.

The world shall proper, without limit, and 'Trump the Chump' ( propular 
Democratic chant)  then becomes hailed as 'Trump the Champ' of human 
rights and  prosperity for all peoples around the world. Yes the global 
elites will pay some new taxes (to their designation home country) but 
they'll financially heal up, just fine,  and peace will flourish around 
the globe. Can you imagine how Pakistan and Iran and others will prosper 
when most of their smartest citizens return home to start new 
businesses?  America will prosper mightily too, probably the most, as 
deep patriotism rebound and economic prosperity is had, but all.
There is more than sufficient talent and new talent available, despite 
the BS that TECH  purpots, right here now in American. Numerous experts 
have kept tabs on the numbers of STEM college kids, who are US citizens, 
that are routinely discriminated against for jobs. Fully one half of 
them never get stem jobs. California has  class about lawsuit against 
quite a few TECH giants for discrimination against older (particularly 
white-male) workers. Stupid hyperbole like "goolyness" is the defense.

A Tsunami is coming in that direction, once it is branded a "national 
defense" issue. TECHs intentional efforts to marginalize millions of 
American Citizens, is not going to play well with the new leaders of the 
IRS. (fact and already a deep promise). And yes a forkable gentoo, can 
and should lead the charge of global tech prosperity. In fact, Gentoo is 
uniquely positioned to be in a position of leadership. Do you have any 
idea of the millions and millions of dollars in government program 
grants that are going to be available to those 'charities' that assist 
the new administration ? Prosperity and nationalism for all nations, 
despite what academics and globalist say, is going to very, very good 
for middle class folks and wise, fleet-footed business leaders.


The history of the linux kernel project is littered with dead companies, 
many because they could not get their devices to be supported by the 
linux kernel project. Regardless of reason, all of those technical 
arguments will not hold up in a court of law, because
most of the kernel is optional; just don't compile in those sources
you do not like. Do no harm. Dirt simple, economically.  Blockers, 
regardless of good intentions, standards, or whatever, have 
disadvantaged companies to the tune of billions and billions of dollars. 
Some filtering might be justifiable, but a large amount of what has 
occurred, was baseless and destructive to competition.  Other 
corporations did the exact same thing and it was blessed and included 
in the sources. The linux kernel project is ripe for labeling as any 
number of disruptive, noncompetitive or national security threats.


The IRS, and any number of agencies can pierce this 'holy vial' of 
economic hippocracy, with trivial effort, because legally all you have 
to do is find one example, historically, where one company did something 
and others were not allow the same opportunity and the entire hoax is 
legally exposed. Corporate American and many international companies 
have been "doodling the linux kernel" for a long time to their 
competitive advantage over other competing companies.  It continues on 
today:: here is a prime example where  it can be argued that Intel and 
Nvidia are the economic beneficiaries of blocking AMD [1] as a 
competitor, via verbiage and hubris that others have been allow to 
orchestrate. If I were AMD, I'd go public, go legal and to Home Land 
Security and start pleading their case. This clearly shows deception as 
blatant economic discrimination  by the linux-kernel-folks.  Just make 
it modular, for now, and AMD can use profits from the sale of equipment, 
to hire folks to do things as 'the brain trust' at the linux kernel so 
demand. As a blocker, AMD will be burdened and unnecessarily delayed, so 
Intel and Nvidia continue to prosper in an unfair and unreasonably 
contrived deception.


The linux kernel project is the 'one stop shop' Where Trump/Pence have 
most of the tech industry, "by the balls". And it is known in keen 
circles as such. That's why "TECH" is already the "bitch" of the ICEMAN.
Unknown is the size and methods of relief that shall be extracted. If 
Trumps fails the citizens on fixing  jobs and manufacturing and the 
nation, then he'll be a one-term president. Trump needs revenue and 
squeezing TECH is his best most fair alternative. After all, TECH, under 
Obama have paid a tiny fraction, of what they should have paid in taxes, 
while many other industries where heavily tax and regulated into oblivion.


Trump/Pense are the GoodCop/ICEMAN team and they are looking to clean 
things up a bit and bring in revenue to fund a more equitably and 
distributed industrial base in American. TECH, has run afoul.  TECH, 
particularly the purveyors of the Internet, went to ridiculous extremes 
to defeat Trump/Pense in the election and they lost. There is a 
house-cleaning coming, including the civil rights violations of many 
American by TECH. The new government is going to get cart-blanche 
permission to violate citizen's privacy, for national-security reasons 
only, but TECH's days are numbered. All of this will either be embraced 
by TECH (the wise ones that read the tea-leafs) or by the IRS and 
Homeland Security, as part of a cleaning up of the IoT industries that 
have become a national security threat and a haven for nefarious 
activists. Home much of the illegal and nefarious activities of the IoT 
Bots has ended up in the databases of TECH? Somebody has to pay, and 
TECH has deep pockets, that mostly support democrats and are due to pay 
some taxes.


GENTOO can be cleaned up, quite easily, and become the wonderful readily 
available linux distro to fork or install, as it once was when 
installation was a snap. In can and should be used, globally and thus 
should play a key role in re-repatriating H1B folks into their own 
homeland, in a most prosperous position. If Gentoo's leadership becomes 
wise, we can save this distro and make it shine like no other linux 
distro can, and the readers of this list know what I am saying is truth 
and empowering to all people and to small to mid-sized businesses.  A 
small team of devs could pull off (1-3) if they decide to clean up 
gentoo, without Council/Foundation approval. Let's remove the blockers 
and make gentoo readily accessible to the masses, as all charities 
should do. Perform task (1-3), rapidly and I'll personally put together 
a team that handles the corrupted (jaded?) past problems of Gentoo and 
that also launches gentoo into outstanding status at the IRS and a 
pristine charity of good and moral conduct, quite worthy of donations 
and research grants and philanthropic gifts. Guaranteed!


Right now, Gentoo is at best a boys club; probably a fiefdom, if the IRS 
wants to use it as a stepping stone to those with deeper pockets in 
TECH. God know we have lots of unemployed STEM folks that can 
economically benefit, should the ICEMAN decided TECH needs to be audited 
both the history and source codes in use by those TECH companies.  Think 
about it, TECH starts to pony up taxes and fines and all sorts of 
revenue, to the ICEMAN and his teams, and millions of underemployed  US 
citizens get employed to audit these TECH companies, line by line. Why 
TECH could create paychecks for millions of jobs here in the US and the 
benefits would be widely distributed to other companies and places 
around the US.

Regardless *THE ICEMAN COMMETH*. and how do we prepare?



[1] 
https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2016-December/126516.html


> Andreas K. Huettel
> Gentoo Linux developer
> dilfridge@g.o
> http://www.akhuettel.de/


James Horton,
Optimist