Gentoo Archives: gentoo-project

From: "William L. Thomson Jr." <wlt-ml@××××××.com>
To: gentoo-project@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-project] Gentoo conflicts and leadership
Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2017 21:19:50
Message-Id: assp.0178898e6e.10044963.AlA4dGFeLe@wlt
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-project] Gentoo conflicts and leadership by Rich Freeman
1 On Thursday, January 5, 2017 3:58:44 PM EST Rich Freeman wrote:
2 > On Thu, Jan 5, 2017 at 3:36 PM, William L. Thomson Jr.
3 >
4 > <wlt-ml@××××××.com> wrote:
5 > > I am not saying ideas should never come from developers. More than most
6 > > the
7 > > ideas should be coming from the council, as they are leading Gentoo. The
8 > > council should always be receptive to developer input and ideas, but
9 > > should be producing at least the same if not more themselves.
10 >
11 > On this I disagree.
12
13 There will always be disagreements in communities, and why you need
14 leadership.
15
16 > The kind of leadership you're talking about doesn't require winning an
17 > election. Anybody can lead Gentoo in this way. This was largely the
18 > intended role of project leaders back in the day.
19
20 Those still fed into a larger hierarchy.
21
22 > The role of the Council is to keep all the disparate little projects
23 > that make up Gentoo working in relative harmony. That way when the
24 > leader of the C++ project wants to make a change that will break all
25 > the Java packages you don't just have the two project leads fighting
26 > WW3.
27
28 So conflict resolution is the only purpose of the council? There is no greater
29 vision for Gentoo?
30
31 > If somebody has an idea for where they want to take Gentoo I hope
32 > they're not waiting until they win an election to implement it.
33
34 What about things like Gentoo certifications? That can come from anyone
35 anywhere? It is naive to thing anyone developer or contributor can lead Gentoo
36 as a total project.
37
38 Gentoo has not had any unified direction likely since Daniel left. Thus since
39 its just been adrift with no direction no focus. Just what ever the whims of
40 anyone contributing code.
41
42 On the smaller scale anyone can scratch their itch. But as you went up the
43 hierarchy pre-council you would run into someone who was looking as to the
44 direction of the project as a whole. When that person felt they could not
45 lead, they tried to transition to another structure.
46
47 Which because everyone has their 2 cents on what the council, foundation,
48 Gentoo etc should be. Its been unfocused since then, because its consensus
49 leadership rather than having an actual leader, singular, or via the council.
50
51 > If nobody has any such ideas then we wouldn't have anybody to elect into
52 > a Council role even if we thought the Council was the place for such
53 > folks.
54
55 Ideas exist but ones for the project as a whole, are not able to be pulled off
56 from within.
57
58 Why did Steve Jobs leave Apple? He was never fire, but reduced his role such
59 that he had little influence over things, so he left. When he returned and was
60 given full control, history was made. A company facing failure and bankruptcy
61 returned to be the most profitable in the US.
62
63 Steve had ideas for Apple they did not want. They did not want him. Apple
64 suffered severely without. Steve went on to pursue his ideas which Apple
65 eventually bought some back, and others Disney bought...
66
67 --
68 William L. Thomson Jr.

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Re: [gentoo-project] Gentoo conflicts and leadership Rich Freeman <rich0@g.o>