Gentoo Archives: gentoo-nfp

From: "William L. Thomson Jr." <wltjr@g.o>
To: gentoo-nfp <gentoo-nfp@l.g.o>
Subject: Re: Foundation existence and behavior (Was: [gentoo-nfp] Section 4.1 Member Classes)
Date: Sun, 25 May 2008 00:30:36
Message-Id: 1211675423.16546.91.camel@wlt.obsidian-studios.com
In Reply to: Foundation existence and behavior (Was: [gentoo-nfp] Section 4.1 Member Classes) by Luca Barbato
1 On Sun, 2008-05-25 at 02:03 +0200, Luca Barbato wrote:
2 >
3 > > Ok, well there are allot of users interested in release media.
4 >
5 > They'll help getting it done, either by doing themselves or supporting
6 > people doing it because they find the thing interesting.
7
8 Um, I am talking about physical release media. Not getting releases out
9 the door. Like having a Gentoo LiveCD/DVD that is branded. Not burned on
10 someones machine.
11
12 > > So your thoughts there? Or what about at an event?
13 >
14 > Get someone sponsoring it.
15
16 Ok, and who is going to poney up $100k for Gentoo? FYI I am a member of
17 the Florida Linux Show steering committee. Because of my efforts on our
18 last one, we topped 300 people at our first show. Scale did ~200 at
19 their first show. It's not easy getting people to sponsor events like
20 that. Much less a Gentoo specific event good luck.
21
22 FYI,
23 Alec Warner (antarus) was looking to lobby on Gentoo's behalf for Google
24 to sponsor a Gentoo event. But it would not pay for Developers to travel
25 to the event. Also it was likely to be in CA, and trips from European
26 countries or others into the US, then across the US to CA are not cheap.
27 It would need to be an east coast event, if even held in the US. Which I
28 doubt Google was interested in sponsoring. Much less some others
29
30 It's so easy to say oh, just get someone to sponsor it. Making that a
31 reality is very difficult.
32
33 > > Ever been by a Gentoo booth compared to others? Like say FreeBSD?
34 >
35 > Say FFmpeg's one?
36
37 Ok, so their are > 250 devs on FFmpeg? They have projects, and teams
38 like our infra? That's really comparing apples to oranges no?
39
40 > > And those rsync servers and bandwidth cost $.
41 >
42 > Kindly provided by privates and organizations using Gentoo.
43
44 Ok, so we aren't in need right now, but just for fun. Let's see how hard
45 it is to get another sponsor to give us ~$1k a month in services. Put a
46 call for help etc, in GMN, and let's see the response we get.
47
48 Let's start talking reality, not ideals.
49
50 > > But devs do not have to listen to users.
51 >
52 > Why should they? Ah, well, because we are reasonable people, open to
53 > feedback and treasuring the help others give us.
54
55 Heck for that matter, at times fellow devs don't listen to others? Why
56 because we might have our own ideas as to how to do something but
57 differently.
58
59 > Again, nothing problematic here.
60
61 Ok, so if you polled the community. We would get no suggests on
62 improvements. Gentoo has 0 problems right now. If I recall much of the
63 controversy from January that stared over foundation legal issues. Went
64 anywhere but. People were pointing out all kinds of issues with Gentoo.
65
66 I guess since then, but some miracle, all that is resolved. Good to
67 know, guess I can happily resign as both a trustee, and users, and
68 things will be fine. Apps will be maintained, and I can go back to being
69 a user. I never wanted to be more. I had to, because of a lack of
70 others.
71
72
73 > >> I think that Gentoo should be run by a group of volunteers who are
74 > >> accountable to the volunteers that contribute (whether staff or devs).
75 > >
76 > > Ok, so I guess me being on the board. I am no longer a dev, or a user.
77 > > Nor am I am volunteer. I guess I am going to get paid at some point?
78 >
79 > No, you should not exist.
80
81 Ok, good to know. I will just go away, and let things get back to where
82 they were. Things not getting done.
83
84 > Again what the council received as proposal could be interpreted in a
85 > quite grim way.
86
87 That's for the new council to decide. If one is ever elected.
88
89 > > Sure because they are there. If we lost one, and you could not commit
90 > > code, or go to g.o, or etc. Then I think you and many others would care.
91 > > Allot, and very quickly.
92 >
93 > Then we'll find solutions.
94
95 And what do you think I am working on now? Waiting till it happens again
96 to find solutions then? That's really proactive to a possible
97 catastrophe.
98
99 > They'll be replaced as needed.
100
101 Despite those I know in the business, I could not find a sponsor to
102 replace all that GNi provides us. In fact that would likely take several
103 sponsors.
104
105 > Not really, you plan to get more people inside the foundation that can
106 > have some kind of power over the developers,
107
108 Give me a break. Not one of any of my posting has had anything to do
109 with power. Just organization.
110
111 > People can have different opinion and wants to check if they are right
112 > the experimental way. Nothing wrong with it.
113
114 Yes but just like package maintanance. There are those that will cast
115 their opinions. Then there are those that will actually do the work, day
116 in and day out.
117
118 I love all these opinions, given the lack of interest for running or
119 wanting to be on the board. I wish more that had opinions, were willing
120 to put their effort where their words and thoughts are.
121
122 I have.
123
124 --
125 William L. Thomson Jr.
126 amd64/Java/Trustees
127 Gentoo Foundation

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