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On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 2:55 AM, William L. Thomson Jr. |
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<wlt@××××××××××××××××.com> wrote: |
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> Thats more about being able to get Gentoo vendor certified. Some |
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> corporations will only go with software the vendor supports or is |
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> certified against. |
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I think that what you're getting at is that Gentoo isn't properly |
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organized to be like Canonical. |
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I agree. |
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I think we need to be realistic about what Gentoo is. I'd love to see |
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Gentoo grow. I'd love to see Gentoo better able to fund its |
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development. However, right now that is going to basically consist of |
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having better access to hardware. I think it is unlikely that we are |
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going to be in a place where a substantial number of devs are paid |
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full-time to be devs. |
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|
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The thing Canonical has that Gentoo doesn't is an infusion of capital. |
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That automatically comes with strong central governance, since nobody |
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invests millions of dollars without making sure it is being |
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well-spent. |
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So, while I agree that you're describing an ideal-state (sort of - |
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there might be many contributors to Gentoo who wouldn't want to be |
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part of a "Canonical"), I think we need to aim first for continual |
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improvement even if it falls short of perfection. |
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|
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I do think that directors/trustees/etc are important to have, even if |
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perhaps they are not a legal necessity. Gentoo is community-driven, |
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so even if dictatorship is more "efficient" it probably isn't a good |
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fit. Perhaps that means we won't sell as many units as Canonical, and |
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perhaps we just need to live with that. |
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As Mike said, when interest is limited you have to do what you can |
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with what you have. Sure, we can argue about whether it is "good |
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enough" but that doesn't change anything. If elected I expect to have |
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to get my hands dirty, and I don't mind doing so (was just reading up |
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on NM/IRS law last night). Many hands make for light work, but we |
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don't have many hands, so we just need to do what we can with what we |
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have. In the end we aren't collecting a paycheck and can't afford to |
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start writing them. |
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Having been involved with other types of non-profits (churches) I do |
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want to also caution about something that can happen when well-meaning |
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people try to solve these kinds of issues in the wrong way. I've been |
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in churches that were highly volunteer-driven, and they had enough |
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labor to get the job done. Then I've seen them become successful, get |
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money, start paying professionals, and start having serious problems. |
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When the balance starts shifting towards paid labor, then volunteers |
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can feel left out (they aren't around for the Tues 10AM planning |
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meeting or whatever), and they can move on to other places where they |
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feel like they have more impact. That leads to more demand for paid |
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staff, and now the budget is taxed. Your big volunteers tend to |
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correlate with your big financial contributors (they're the ones who |
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care), and as they leave your budget is attacked on both ends. The |
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result can be a really big mess. |
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This doesn't happen to a business that started out top-down and grew |
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top-down with a big budget organically. The two types of operations |
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are fundamentally different in makeup and dynamics even if an org |
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chart for either can look similar. |
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There is no reason that something similar couldn't happen here. |
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Gentoo is a community-driven distro, and we need to keep the community |
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healthy above all else. |
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|
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Rich |