Mick wrote: > On Saturday 12 January 2008, Jil Larner wrote: > >> Well, it's like if I am opening my eyes. I never looked at what the >> foundation was supposed to do. For a couple of years I've been using >> gentoo, I never get any political announcement, maybe because I didn't >> look at the right place, or maybe there was no. I mean that except the >> Gentoo's Philosophy and the Gentoo's Social Contract, I didn't see >> politic, for my eyes were probably closed. >> It doesn't mean I didn't enjoyed gentoo, its power, its flexibility, its >> community. But I certainly missed something. There are so many ways to >> communicate (lists, IRC, boards, wikis, project pages, etc.) that I must >> admit I'm sometime lost. >> >> Today, I learn we're in trouble. Good. What trouble ? What's happening ? >> Why through the words of Daniel Robbins, I feel some fear ? I feel he >> foresees a dead end and offers an opportunity to change before it is too >> late. Once more, to quote Matrix, "the problem is choice". In Free >> Software, there are often choices where the community can get involved >> in and it makes our strength. The problem is, and is not, legal papers. >> Because, IMO, legal papers are the visible part of an Iceberg. Could >> someone tell me what *really* is the crisis ? If people did not do what >> they were supposed to do : what should they have done ? >> >> Thanks. >> > > I am equally agnostic of Gentoo management politics, albeit grateful that > people volunteer their time and effort to keep it going. From the little > exposure that I have had to it all it seems to me that Alan's views ring > depressingly true. I read Daniel's blog and cannot disagree with what he > suggests - it makes common sense that users views and desires should > determine Gentoo's direction, but I have not read between the lines to see > how might his proposals lead to directions that I would not readily agree > with. See this excerpt of his below from OSNews.com in 2002: > > "I very much want to find a way to turn the Gentoo Linux project into a > profitable enterprise. My main motivation in wanting to do this is so I can > stop living from paycheck to paycheck and focus my professional efforts > exclusively on Gentoo Linux development. Many of our developers would like to > do the same thing" > > (I am not critising this statement of his; after all I would very much like > to > find myself a sustainable way of being able to do what I like - without > having to spend the biggest part of my day in my current job.) > > Giving a free hand to any single person is not safe in my humble view, > especially if that person is employed by Microsoft - I will find hard to rest > assured that there will be no conflict of interest. On the other hand it > seems that Gentoo desperately needs *mature* leadership, which can fulfill > some rather significant responsibilities. From what I read the current > Gentoo administration and management setup does not seem to be able to behave > with the professionalism required to achieve that. This makes me anxious for > the future of Gentoo. > > Just my 2c's. >
I have been using Gentoo for about 4 or 5 years now. I to think Gentoo has well, lost its way. It seems like a bunch of teenagers is running it sometimes. They decide something then go back a few steps when they don't like the results. Proctors come to mind on that. Users seems to be the last thing on the higher ups mind. That is not good. I love my Gentoo but I would like to see someone step up and get some things done and some decisions made, even those we may never know about. I just don't want to see Gentoo fall into the abyss. Dale :-) :-) -- gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list
