>>>>> "Paul" == Paul Wise <p...@debian.org> writes:
Paul> On Fri, May 31, 2019 at 5:32 AM Holger Levsen wrote:
>> LTS is accepted by the Debian community.
Paul> I'm not entirely sure this fully represents the range of feelings
Paul> about the LTS efforts.
Paul> There are a few things that are possibly concerning:
Paul> This means that if Freexian decides to end its provision of services
Paul> for Debian LTS, then the level of work done for LTS would go down
Paul> significantly. Were this to happen, it would either significantly
Paul> damage the image of Debian due to having to end the LTS effort or
Paul> require us to do work which we have had a hard time finding volunteers
Paul> for in the past.
If Freexian were to end its LTS effort because the funding disappeared,
then I do not think Debian's image would be significantly damaged by
ending LTS.
We've made it clear that we're doing this because people are funding it.
If they stop and are not replaced with people doing the work, then
market demand has disappeared.
If Freexian stopped their LTS effort but people were still interested in
funding LTS, I suspect we could find someone else willing to handle the
administrative aspects of it.
Paul> https://wiki.debian.org/LTS/Team
Paul> There is strong coupling between Debian and Freexian in the language
Paul> on the Debian LTS pages and the Freexian pages. This is free
Paul> advertising for Freexian's LTS services and representing Freexian's
Paul> LTS services as "blessed" by Debian or somehow "official", which could
Paul> be objected to by other companies who might decide to provide security
Paul> support services. It may be prudent to remove or alter the language on
Paul> the Debian LTS pages.
I actually think it's important for us as a project to endorce or
support people doing great work in our communities.
That's something we can do that significantly increases user confidence
and makes it easier for people to partner with us.
If we get the objections you're talking about, let's find a way to
figure out whether we should be blessing or making those other companies
official too.
I've seen a number of discussions over the years about partnering with
people stall because we wanted to establish a bunch of rules ahead of
time.
I do think it's important that we respond to objections from people who
want to be included and are not. I think the best response will be to
work with those organizations and figure out how they can be included
too.
Yes, if we get a bunch of different organizations jumping up and down to
work on LTS, we'll have to figure out rules for inclusion. It seems
that whatever those rules are, Freexian (today) would be one of the
official partners.
So, I think both our users and the free software community are best
served by being honest that we are working closely with Freexian.
Paul> https://wiki.debian.org/LTS/Funding
Paul> As far as I can tell, the sole communication between the LTS team and
Paul> the list of individuals/organisations doing consulting around Debian
Paul> is a mail attempting to recruit folks to work for Freexian. As far as
Paul> I can tell, there has been no suggestion that
Paul> individuals/organisations doing consulting around Debian add
Paul> themselves to the list of organisations available to hire to work on
Paul> LTS. This means that the individuals/organisations doing consulting
Paul> around Debian miss out on the opportunities to work on LTS.
If we get feedback from people who would like to work on LTS but who
don't think the current structure works for them, we should definitely
look into that.
Paul> https://www.debian.org/consultants/
Paul>
https://lists.debian.org/msgid-search/20160502094142.ga19...@home.ouaza.com
Paul> Freexian doesn't fund LTS contributors who are not DDs/DMs: this
Paul> eliminates skilled developers from outside Debian who could contribute
Paul> to LTS via Freexian and eventually work on Debian more generally. This
Paul> seems to have prevented at least one former Debian member who was
Paul> interested in Freexian's offer from contributing. It might also make
Paul> LTS funding seem like a reward for Debian insiders.
The difference between reward and job qualification small here.
Or put another way, if doing a bunch of hard work to learn about Debian
packaging and contributing to our community opens up opportunities for
our members and maintainers, that sounds great to me.
