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Fellow developers, |
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the following is my manifesto for this council election. |
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My background: |
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I have been a gentoo developer since 2004, and a user since approximately |
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2001. I also have some experience with RedHat Linux and Debian in the |
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earlier days of these distributions (Debian 3.0 and RH 6.0). I have also |
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worked on and continue to work on the Speakup screen reader driver in |
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the linux kernel. |
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My thoughts for the 2013-14 council term: |
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These are basically the same ideas I have followed during my last term |
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on the council. |
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1. The council should stay out of the way of innovation, which comes |
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from the individual developers. |
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2. Developers also have a responsibility to maintain packages in a way |
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that is in line with the gentoo philosophy, which includes things like |
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following upstream recommendations unless we have a technical reason not |
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to, making sure patches we do apply can be sent upstream (or |
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documenting why we need them), and giving users reasonable control over |
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packages. |
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3. When the council is asked to make a decision, there are several |
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things it should consider. |
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- The council should make sure it understands the issues involved |
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before voting. |
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- The council should not take an extremely long time to make a |
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decision. We are not going to be able to please everyone in Gentoo |
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all the time, and we are not going to be able to please everyone on |
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the council. |
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- the council should consider how much extra work it puts on developers |
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and how much its decisions will cause Gentoo to diverge from upstream |
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recommendations. I feel that the council should exercise caution when |
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asking developers to do custom work which diverges from upstream |
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recommendations. |
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4. I believe we can learn from the past, and improve upon it. Continuing |
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to do things like we have in the past is not a bad thing in itself. |
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However, using what we have done in the past to block change can be a |
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bad thing. I understand that people are used to doing things a certain |
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way. However, that alone is not justification for continuing to do things |
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the same way in the future. |
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if we need to make a change, we should make sure that |
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change is backward compatible with what we have, or if this is not |
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possible, provide the smoothest possible route forward for our users. |
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If anyone has any questions for me about any of these points, feel free |
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to ask. |
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William |
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