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As a new Gentoo developer but with a little experience of management of |
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open projects, here is my opinion on the subject. |
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|
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|
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1- On NFP |
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- --------- |
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|
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I was still recently a member of Gentoo user base, and I think what the |
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user base wants is be sure Gentoo will be there tomorrow and will be |
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free (as in beer and as in freedom). The average user probably also |
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wants to have more leverage on the direction it's heading. The developer |
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wants to make sure his work will not be stolen by a dark corporate |
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conspiracy and will remain free. |
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|
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My experience shows that true democracy in open projects is not viable. |
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When truly implemented, it's an illusion or/and a innovation killer. |
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Resources are limited, choices must be made, conflicts must be resolved, |
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someone must have final word. Management is a vertical thing, not an |
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horizontal one. There must be a benevolent dictator or a small group of |
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managers. That doesn't seem right, but it's the only effective way. What |
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if the manager(s) does not follow the will of the community ? What if he |
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becomes a bad dictator, oppressing his people ? The open source |
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ecosystem has its answer : the project can be forked. The current lead |
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should do his best to avoid that, change his views, step down and let |
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another lead take over. But there always is this ultimate solution. It's |
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a painful process but ultimately the community will choose. They will |
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vote with their feet. |
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|
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So I think the best is a closed model. Since it's more or less the way |
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it works for now, I think the community can accept it. As long as the |
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the main goal ('forever free') is clearly built-in. |
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|
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A lot of devs are here because they love Gentoo's way : technical |
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issues, not political issues. A lot of devs will leave (and are leaving) |
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if political issues take over. It's the midlife management crisis for |
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the Gentoo project, we won't go through unaffected. But hopefully we |
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will go through stronger and more effective. |
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|
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|
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2- On Gentoo |
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- ------------ |
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|
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Gentoo is a lot of things. To ensure that the open source ecosystem can |
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be applied to it, we must consider them separately. Each could have its |
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own lead and fork possibility : |
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|
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- - Gentoo is portage |
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The portage technology is the core of the Gentoo system. It's difficult |
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to change without changing the ebuild tree, but could be changed. |
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|
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- - Gentoo is a tree of packages using portage |
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The official portage tree with its arches, ebuilds, stable keywords. |
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Alternative/additional portage trees can exist. |
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|
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- - Gentoo is a distribution using the portage tree |
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A distribution is a little more than a package tree : it has releases, |
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security updates, installation ISOs, a mirror network... Closely related |
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to the precedent, but could be separated from it. |
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|
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- - Gentoo is a helpful community using the distribution |
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The forums and the mailing-lists are also what makes Gentoo a success. A |
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lot of users of others distributions find the Gentoo forums more useful |
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than their own dist forums. A fork at community level is probably not |
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possible. |
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|
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Should a single NFP cover the whole thing ? Or should you have a portage |
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open source project, a tree+distribution NFP, and a community with its |
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own hierarchy of moderators ? |
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3- on Coop |
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- ---------- |
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I think the coop idea is very interesting and innovative. But I also |
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think it can easily be separated from the NFP/Management issues. The |
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coop(s) decide where money is spent. The university-driven coop(s) can |
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fund a particular developer if they want his particular work to advance |
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full-time. The coop(s) don't have to have the same lead as the NFP(s). |
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If they don't like the way it goes, they can just cut the money flow and |
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induce a fork by funding a parallel project. Vote using their wallet. |
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|
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Conclusion |
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- ---------- |
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|
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I think we can have a global solution with a distribution (under one or |
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several NFP projects with closed leadership), a community not directly |
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depending on the distribution (that can choose with their feet between |
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forks) and separate coop(s) (that can influence where it goes by using |
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its money). I think I rephrase what klieber already said, but I like to |
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be verbose, despite my bad English :) |
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|
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|
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- -- |
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Thierry Carrez |
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koon@g.o -- Gentoo Security project |
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