Re: [gentoo-project] My manifesto for 2015/2016

[William Hubbs]

On Thu, Jul 09, 2015 at 11:59:40PM -0700, Daniel Campbell (zlg) wrote:
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> On 07/09/2015 09:05 AM, William Hubbs wrote:
> > * We can learn from the past and improve upon it. Continuing to do
> > things like we have in the past is not a bad thing in itself.
> > However, using what we have done in the past to block change can
> > be. I understand that people are used to doing things a certain
> > way. However, that alone is not justification for continuing to do
> > things the same way in the future. if we need to make a change, we
> > should make sure that change is backward compatible with what we
> > have, or if this is not possible, provides the smoothest possible
> > transition for our users. Since the council doesn't maintain all
> > of the packages, the council is not going to know the technical
> > details of how to make either of these happen, so I don't feel
> > that the council should mandate specific implementations.?
>
> Does this relate to a certain init system that shall not be named? The
> chosen verbiage prompted a mental head-tilt.

this was a general comment about resistance to change. I have run into
situations where upstreams change or deprecate functionality but users
seem to want us to keep supporting the old functionality forever because
that's the way they have done things for 20 years, even if it means
forcing us to jump through hoops and significantly diverge from
upstream.

I agree that if upstream doesn't provide a smooth transition away from
the old function it is up to us to do that, either by automation or by
notifying users and giving them time to adjust, but I do not belive in
continually diverging from upstreams to support old deprecated functions
forever.

I was not specifically referring to any software, just a mentality
I have encountered.

> What is your stance on standardizing Gentoo's stack? Do you feel that
> choice is more important than predictability beyond stage3?

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "Gentoo's stack" -- can you
elaborate a little more on this?

> Thanks for taking the time to read, and thank you for your continued
> work in Gentoo. You're one of the people whose work and involvement
> inspired me to become a developer.
 
 Thanks Daniel. :-)

 William