Dear Debianists,
I found an article on a web site called linux-watch
(http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS3128387759.html)
Here is the article:
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Disgruntled Debian developers delay Etch
Dec. 18, 2006
Debian GNU/Linux 4.0, codenamed Etch, had been due to arrive by December 4,
2006, but it's been delayed because some developers have deliberately slowed
down their work.
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According to a blog note by Andreas Barth, Debian developer and release
manager, the delay has resulted because "Some people who used to do good
work reduced their involvement drastically. There was nothing I could do
about, and that happened way before I started full-time on release, but on
the global picture that still counts."
It appears that these developers have pulled back from working on Debian
because of their objections to Barth and fellow release manager, Steve
Langasek, being paid to work on Debian by the Dunc-Tank.org.
Dunc-Tank.org is a group of Debian developers that set about raising funds
to be used for "financially supporting the volunteers working on managing
the release process, allowing them to devote their full attention to that
task." Specifically, the group's goal was to raise enough funds to pay "both
release managers enough to work exclusively on the release of etch for a
month each, having Steve Langasek available full-time during October and
Andreas Barth available full-time during November, with the release expected
to follow soon after in the first week of December."
The group wanted to do this because Debian has a long history of being late.
That, in fact, is one reason why the Debian-based Ubuntu distribution was
started.
Dunc-Tank's membership includes Anthony Towns, the Debian Leader, Steve
McIntyre, the assistant to the Debian Leader, prominent Debian developers
Raphael Hertzog and Joey Hess, and well-known Debian and Linux kernel
developer Ted Ts'o.
Many Debian developers denounced the Dunc-Tank proposal. Some even demanded
that Towns be removed as leader because he supported Dunc-Tank. Their
objection was that by financially supporting developers, Debian would become
a two-class system and that, in turn, would be destructive to the Debian
community.
When the matters came up for a vote in October, the Dunc-Tank plan won
approval and the attempt to remove Towns failed.
That, however, did not turn out to be the end of the matter. Many
developers, led by Joerg Jaspert, a well-known Debian maintainer and
programmer, issued a position statement on October 26. In this statement,
which was published on the Debian developers' announcement list, the
developers spelled out why they objected to the Dunc-Tank initiative.
Jaspert also said that Dunc-Tank "has demotivated a lot of people who now
either resigned, simply stopped doing (parts of their) Debian work or are
doing a lot less than they did before DT was started. The freeze got delayed
and getting the release out on schedule has become nearly impossible. We are
unable to see any good virtue in this 'experiment.' "
"The heated discussion DT has consumed an incredible amount of time and
energy that could also have been used in a much more productive way,"
Jaspert added. "This was probably expected from the DT initiators but didn't
keep them from setting off this discussion at such an important time --
shortly before the release. Why they didn't introduce DT *after* the
release, or much earlier in this release cycle, when there is/was time and a
lengthy discussion would not have taken otherwise needed time is not
understandable."
It's turned out that Jaspert was correct. The next release of Debian has
been delayed because developers have stayed away from working on Debian
because of their objections to two of the developers being paid.
As Barth wrote, "So, looking at the status changes during the time I spent
full-time on release issues I think it worked well. Of course, not
everything is perfect, but there is a clear improvement. On the other hand,
there was a large disadvantage of the whole experiment."
Barth also announced that Etch is now fully frozen. He did not say, however,
when Etch will finally be released.
-- Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
*********************************************************************************
Is this article accurate in its reporting?
I am a bit puzzled by it. For me, if I would buy CDs or DVDs from a vendor
or make a donation to Debian etc and some of the money was spent to pay some
of the developers I would not bother about it.
If most people have full time (often IT or academic) jobs and also make a
free contribution to Debian this is commendable. But if the size of the
community grows to the point where it can pay some people to be full time
contributors to the project this is a sign of success to me. Charitable
organisations pay some of their members and so do religions. So do
political parties.
But most of them are not trying to make a profit. I would say the community
is smart enough to see who is making a creative contribution irrrespective
of whether they are being paid for it or not.
But what do I know.......????
Your comments are appreciated.
Regards
Michael Fothergill
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