Dear Jonathan, thank you for another batch of questions.
Am Wed, Mar 26, 2025 at 07:48:39AM +0200 schrieb Jonathan Carter: > > How do you feel about organisations such as the Open Source Initiative, After reading the LWN article "OSI election ends with unsatisfying results"[1], my trust in the organization is deeply shaken. The reported governance issues-namely lack of transparency in elections-made me realize that even in the Free Software world, such problems persist. While I don't know how this affects Debian directly, I hope we can continue focusing on our principles to build the best system. Perhaps this also invites reflection on how we uphold accountability in our own processes. > Free Software Foundation I think the FSF is upholding the same values as we do and I appreciate this. > and the Linux Foundation? I need to admit I have no deeper insight into Linux Foundation and can't comment on this question. > We have two candidates who have mentioned their intent to collaborate more > closely with Ubuntu, but should we also be doing more to collaborate with > these? > > In cases where our goals start to diverge from these organisations (or more > accurately, when their goals start to diverge from ours, but bah! I don't > want to lead the question too much), should we be paying attention? Or even > take action? I did not mention Ubuntu in my platform, but I'd like to emphasize that Debian should approach all derivatives equally. Any technical collaboration, such as incorporating useful patches from any distribution, is always sensible. While Debian should remain independent in its decision-making, it is important to stay aware of developments in related projects where relevant. > And pointing the finger to ourselves, how well do you think the Debian > Social contract and DFSG holds up? As a DPL candidate, do you think there's > anything substantially missing? > > https://www.debian.org/social_contract Do you have specific concerns or ideas in mind regarding potential gaps? I admit I have not thought about this yet, but I see the Social Contract and DFSG as fundamental to Debian's identity. I am open to inspiring ideas and discussions on how they might evolve. > Do you think that there are there ways we could do better at those promises > and be a better Debian? I believe our promises are well thought out and form a strong foundation. What matters most is bringing them to life through our actions. While there is always room to improve how we fulfill them, I think Debian, in general, does a good job of staying true to them. > And another bonus question. How do you feel about the general concept of > free software going forward? Is it something that is growing / embraced by > the world (big corporations, software companies, etc), or is the trend to > nerf it and trend towards models such as open-core and exploit it as far as > possible? That's certainly a bonus question, and I believe the DPL has only a marginal influence on these global trends. I've heard different perspectives on the future of free software-some optimistic, some concerned about shifts toward open-core models. What matters most to me is that Debian continues to grow, which I've tried to illustrate in my Bits talk at DebConf. As long as Debian thrives, I take that as a positive sign. > And another because I'm supposed to be driving to work and it's more fun to > type questions than to sit in traffic... how do you feel about how AI is > going? Massive corporations are scraping and processing vast amounts of work > in the commons that gets regurgitated as new and original code. Where do you > stand on this, both ethically and in the context of the future of projects > like Debian? At FOSSASIA, I saw a talk that analyzed this topic to some extent. One of the key takeaways was a graph showing that while commercial AIs are currently more powerful, free AIs are catching up. It will be interesting to see how this trend develops and what it means for projects like Debian. As Einstein supposedly said, 'Predictions are difficult, especially about the future.' Thank you for your questions Andreas. [1] https://lwn.net/Articles/1014603/ -- https://fam-tille.de
