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I'm not going to reply to anything specific in this thread, but just |
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offer some general impressions. I'm going to try to put this reply from |
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the perspective of myself as a gentoo user - as a dev I try to |
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contribute what I can and add value, but I don't pretend to be the most |
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vital contributor to the organization. As a dev I'm a user as well... |
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|
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As a Gentoo user, I could really care less whether Gentoo holds any |
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tangible assets. As long as there is a server to rsync off of I'm good |
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to go - and there are lots of people out there willing to contribute |
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bandwidth because it is for a good cause. |
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|
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As a Gentoo user, I'd rather see enthusiastic volunteer developers who |
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are happy to contribute, than to see Gentoo turn into some kind of |
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corporate atmosphere where those who pay get the features they need (a |
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la most commercial distros). Sure, it might be a non-profit on paper, |
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but large non-profits tend to be indistinguishable from commercial |
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enterprises - neither is really grass-roots. |
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|
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As a Gentoo user, I'd like devs to listen to my ideas, but I recognize |
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that I'm getting far more out of Gentoo than I'm putting into it. |
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Frankly I'm amazed that so many folks put in so much time to make this |
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distro really great to run - and I don't have to pay a dime for it! So, |
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when I want to have things my own way, I don't really expect anybody to |
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bow to my needs. I think that devs should listen to the collective will |
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of the users because it is the right thing to do - not because the users |
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should hold any power over them. |
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|
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I think that Gentoo should be run by a group of volunteers who are |
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accountable to the volunteers that contribute (whether staff or devs). |
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I'd rather not have a foundation with power over trademark, assets, etc, |
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threatening to pull the plug or force a fork if the devs or their |
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elected leadership don't fall in line over some controversy. As long as |
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the Foundation and the Council have a common constituency I'm not too |
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concerned about this happening, but when the constituencies are |
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different there is the potential for conflict. |
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|
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Personally, I'm not too concerned that Gentoo depends on our sponsors. |
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I contribute to Gentoo because it is the right thing to do and I'm able |
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to give back a little of what I'm getting. I suspect most who sponsor |
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open source projects in various ways do so for the same reason. I'd |
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rather not see Gentoo turn into some non-profit corporation that pays |
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its own way - if we're doing the "right thing" then we shouldn't run out |
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of those willing to help out with a little bandwidth here and there. |
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And we can always solicit donations if we have some kind of a need. |
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|
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In my experience one of two things happens to organizations that seek |
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complete self-sufficiency: They tend to accumulate paid staff rapidly. |
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The functioning of the organization tends to become focused around the |
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paid positions. After all - they're the only ones who always show up at |
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scheduled meetings and are around 9-5 since they're on payroll. This |
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tends to make volunteers feel left out, and they tend to leave. Then |
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one of two things happen - the organization either dies out, or it is |
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able to sustain itself in revenue and carries on forever, but usually |
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with a loss of its originally-intended mission. |
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|
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Open source is about community - a community of contributors, not a |
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community of voters for whom a vote costs nothing, or maybe it costs a |
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few bucks. None of us started using gentoo because we got to vote to |
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make the devs do what we wanted, but rather because we saw that a bunch |
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of devs had created something that we could really use. Every |
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successful FOSS project I can think of operates in the same way. |
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|
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I'd really like to see the Foundation aim to involve more of the |
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community and point out when the community is neglected. However, could |
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there perhaps be a way to do this without changing the membership |
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structure. I'm genuinely concerned that this move could have the |
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long-term results of causing a fork which would be very disruptive (or |
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maybe not - just look at XFree86). I'd really rather not see this |
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happen to my favorite distro! |
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-- |
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