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On 18 September 2013 09:02, Sven Vermeulen <swift@g.o> wrote: |
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> On Tue, Sep 17, 2013 at 09:53:22PM -0500, Daniel Campbell wrote: |
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>> As a user, I've considered becoming a developer but the process is |
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>> rather contrived and multi-tiered. It doesn't seem like you're becoming |
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>> a developer through said process, but rather joining a fraternity. |
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>> There's lots of bureacracy involved that really turns prospective |
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>> developers off. I don't know how common it is, but if Gentoo has a lack |
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>> of developers, there must be a clear reason as to why. Clearly Gentoo |
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>> has a lot of avid users *and* developers, so if developers are needed, |
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>> perhaps the process to become a developer should be improved. Why else |
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>> would the distro be lacking devs if it has a bright and enthusiastic |
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>> userbase? |
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> |
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> The process looks daunting at first, but in my opinion it is not as "hard" |
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> as it is often seen. Yes, we work with questions & answers to make sure |
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> proper knowledge is in place. But these questions are not all that difficult |
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> if you already have experience with ebuild creation & development (assuming |
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> you're talking about the ebuild developer quizzes, not the staff quizzes). |
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> |
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> Of course, if you have no experience with it and want to get developer |
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> access, then immediately focusing on the quizzes is the wrong approach. Try |
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> to help where possible with bug fixing and contributing ebuilds - you don't |
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> need CVS (yeah, still CVS) access to do so. |
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> |
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> An important part of joining the Gentoo crew is to work with others - work |
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> with your mentor, interact with the recruiters, etc - because, as with every |
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> free software project, we are all a bunch of individuals whose actions can |
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> impact others. |
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> |
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> Gentoo currently has 245 active developers. That is not a small amount. |
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> Ubuntu is at 210, Debian has many more (I tried to parse |
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> http://www.debian.org/devel/people and was over 2000). |
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> |
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> Using a different approach to gain more developers might have more impact |
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> than you imagine on the quality of the distribution as well as the progress |
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> it makes. If the distribution would be 12 developers, it wouldn't be all |
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> that hard to make a good roadmap and focus areas. Twelve people can easily |
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> decide amongst each other what to do. But 200+ developers is a different |
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> ballgame (hence the need for "bureaucratic" things like the Gentoo Council) |
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> where decisions need to be weighted and where every individual can |
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> contribute (or block) to the progress of the distribution. |
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> |
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> Imagine what would happen if we had 500+ developers. |
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> |
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> Wkr, |
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> Sven Vermeulen |
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> |
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|
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We have been through the same discussion over and over again and it |
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usually starts by users |
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who think that the process is mostly non-sense and part of the 19th century. |
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What Sven said is mostly true. Most users tend to focus too much on the |
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"theoretical" part of the recruitment (aka the quizzes) but they don't |
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actually see beyond that. |
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|
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The quizzes might be "hard" or "long" at first look, but *if* you have |
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been part of the community for |
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a not-so-long time, you will notice that you can probably answer all |
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the questions within 2 hours tops! |
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What this means is that, you can't just become a developer out of the |
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blue with the expectation to be an |
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easy process just because you understand what 'emerge' does and what |
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package.accept_keywords is for. |
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|
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If this is how you think, then you clearly are not ready to become a developer. |
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However, if you try to make some real contributions to the project, |
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get involved with teams and the mailing lists, |
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you will notice that most of the questions make sense, and having them |
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in the quizzes is the correct thing. |
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Of course, I don't expect my reply to prevent similar threads in the |
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future but maybe someone could point "scared" |
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users to this thread and make them realize that they need to do their |
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homework before they go blame the process |
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without concrete evidences. |
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|
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-- |
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Regards, |
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Markos Chandras - Gentoo Linux Developer |
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http://dev.gentoo.org/~hwoarang |
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