Of course you only see you numbered your notes the wrong way *after* you
send your e-mail...
The second [3] and [4] should have been [5] and [6] (see inline).
Stijn Segers schreef op 2017-05-11 12:53:
Hey guys,
This might be a bit lengthy, but I should get this off my chest. I
feel people are mostly looking at the upside and glossing over the
negatives, which is a time bomb, and both projects do not deserve
this. Paul's e-mail [0] already touches a lot of the relevant points,
and it motivated me to add my own insights to what so far seems to
have been a 'good news show' as we say in Dutch.
While, like most people, I'm happy progress has been made towards a
re-merge, there still seems quite some passive-agressive behaviour
present coming from certain people championing OpenWrt [1] - which,
from where I stand, seemed one of the reasons for starting LEDE.
Stifling 'free' speech (recently, even to the point of removing
messages about the pending re-merge on the OpenWrt forums) was another
one; clearly, that one is still very much present as well. One could
say old habits die hard, but it still feels like par for the course.
What's up with that? You want to remerge with the LEDE project, yet
you cannot tolerate any discussion about the actual process on the
OpenWrt forums? That's some fine duplicity right there.
I can't help but feel very uneasy about this. I'm not implying people
who stuck with OpenWrt don't want the best for the project and
community (most do), but we all know LEDE was created to remedy
exactly these (and other) shortcomings, which made OpenWrt languish to
the point it had come to a standstill. Not only did LEDE try to tackle
these problems; it has succeeded beyond expectation. Developers are
more accessible, you can actually talk to people instead of getting
your head bit off, contributions are booming, and the atmosphere
overall is friendly and helpful. Discussion is encouraged, not
repressed Soviet-style.
Some of the OpenWrt veterans come across as if they want the re-merge
to be rushed, ignoring the actual issues that caused the fork in the
first place. In itself, the desire to re-merge might a noble intent,
if it didn't taste so much like driven by ulterior, more selfish
motives. At the same time, while OpenWrt have little to offer beyond
the OpenWrt name and legacy (which, at this point, feels more and more
rotten to me, despite all the good things that once came from it),
they field some pretty hard nos - very astonishing, given the position
they are in: no to abandoning the OpenWrt name, no to abandoning the
OpenWrt 'house style' [1]. Luckily, not everyone shares that same
attitude [2], but it leaves a very bad taste. Almost like some people
haven't learnt from the whole ordeal, and went back to their old ways
pretty quickly.
It feels pushy, and seems to boil down to 'it's all fine and dandy
what you did, but it's still OpenWrt; don't get any illusions, you're
not running the show'. This is very toxic, even more so when you
realise that an overwhelming majority of active (!) OpenWrt developers
either started or joined the LEDE project. Some of the vocal veterans
sticking with OpenWrt hardly contribute any code anymore, and haven't
done so in a while, or other valuable input, but they were most vocal
when the split happened, pointing fingers and accusing people
(ironically, people who *did* contribute code, actively maintained
infrastructure, and had the interests of the project and community at
heart). Again, they are yelling the hardest now, and waving that
OpenWrt flag like there's no tomorrow. Imre nothing short of ignores
the whole LEDE effort by stating explicitly that LEDE 17.01 (which
Hauke put forward as an official OpenWrt 15.01 successor in an initial
communication draft about the merge [3]) was NOT its successor [4].
Combined with his push for the OpenWrt name and keeping pretty much
everything else OpenWrt (the dysfunctional homepage, the forums), it
reeks of a coverup: LEDE was a hiccup, an anomaly, a gene malfunction,
something that needs to be corrected and removed from the 'history
books' as soon as possible, so it can all feel hunky dory again - and
mostly, so it looks and smells like OpenWrt. By now, that smell has
turned into quite a stench though. Luckily, the industry and a lot of
end users seem to be impervious to it...
For me, the OpenWrt name and project by now feels tainted. For months
on end, you could browse the OpenWrt forums, or hang in #openwrt and
never catch a dev or someone who knew what was (or wasn't) going on.
Backends went down, sites disappeared, and it doesn't help to keep
pointing to the OpenWrt name 'because the industry only knows
OpenWrt', or 'because end users still don't know about LEDE'. Linux
has been around for two decades now, and a lot of people with a
computer still haven't heard of it. Before Mozilla, the internet only
knew IE. Before Linux, sysadmins only knew Unices. Anyway, plenty of
comparisons at hand - you get the gist. OpenWrt has served its
purpose. It is time to part ways.
Note references below fixed.
It looks like some people have resigned to adopting the name again for
the greater good, because they want this mess to be over with
(understandably). The last vote tally I found [5] was a tie on the
most contentious issue - the name. A week ago [6], Hauke states there
is a majority in favour of re-adopting the OpenWrt name. I have been
looking up and down but seem to have overlooked the final tally - I
cannot find it? Can somebody link me?
I'm sure a lot of people want this to be fixed, want things to be
right again. Most of those have the best interests of the community
and both projects in mind, but some do not, and the latter seem to be
waging a war of attrition. I enjoy being part of the LEDE community. I
never felt OpenWrt was much of a community in the months prior to the
fork, and I'd hate to see LEDE go the same way as OpenWrt right
before. There will be infighting again, snide remarks, stalled
development... And meanwhile, people will say 'hey we need new blood',
but that won't come with such a backstabbing culture.
My two cents.
Cheers
Stijn Segers
[0] http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/lede-dev/2017-May/007403.html
[1] http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/lede-dev/2017-May/007342.html
[2] http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/lede-dev/2017-May/007347.html
[3] http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/lede-adm/2017-May/000461.html
[4] http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/lede-adm/2017-May/000462.html
[5]
http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/lede-adm/2017-March/000436.html
[6] http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/lede-adm/2017-May/000461.html
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