Take a deep breath Jeremiah :)
This is not a "good" situation but it is managable and may help resolve some
organisational issues wrt MeeGo - silver lining :)
On 03/08/11 10:05, Jeremiah Foster wrote:
Hardly cheap Dave. I'd say its rather expensive as my company and many
of the companies we work with have assigned developers to work with LF
tools and distro's like MeeGo and OBS. If we cannot develop things
like app stores to compete with Google and Apple then we've invested
considerable money at a significant loss. We cannot generate revenue
through the "authorized" app delivery mechanism. Sorry, I don't see
how this is not a fair reflection of the Linux Foundation.
IMO this is nothing to do with App Stores generally. This is LF refusing to take
a legal risk on an area they feel that they have limited control over. It is a
bit sad but litigation in the US is not something a small company messes with.
MeeGo as a project never (AIUI) promised to deliver an app store or a mechanism
to deploy a local one. We in the hacker community wanted to support MeeGo by
bringing OSS developers into the fold. Hopefully they'd help polish the tools
and processes - and of course we'd get to publish our apps. So it was - and
remains - a good idea for MeeGo. See later for why.
From where I am standing, with no special knowledge at all, it looks like
the Linux Foundation is simply a risk-averse organisation, conscious of the
potential knock-on effects that any legal issues could cause for their
members and the projects they host.
Yes.
The question this raises for me is : is LF a suitable host for the MeeGo
community.
This is extremely dangerous. It goes against the precedent that says
"there exist no legal claims against Linux."
Total red herring Linux != OSS Apps.
It looks to me like legal counsel has a
pretty big say in some strategic decisions the foundation makes, more so
than corporate members (in fact, there are a couple of examples of corporate
members pushing for things which met with some resistance in the Linux
Foundation).
I don't know what you're referring to - perhaps you do have some
"special knowledge?"
All idle speculation .... but WTF are we supposed to do? The LF are just not
communicating.
I suggest that all we can do is some risk assesment as a project. Right now the
limited information we have is that LF will not expose themselves to legal risk
associated with binary distribution... so what happens to the main OBS? Home
projects in the main OBS? Community OBS? CE project on the Community OBS?
If my impression is correct, then you're not achieving anything with this
characterisation -
Obviously I disagree. I think devs who get involved with a LF project
should know how they treat devs and the faux legal hurdles they face.
Knowing this before hand helps them make the right decision when it is
time to contribute code.
Given a choice I personally would not currently choose to use the LF to host an
OSS project. Maybe I would choose them to do some "corporate hoorah"; honestly I
don't know what 'services' they offer but clearly hosting an OSS community isn't
one of them.
But in the end, developers vote with their
contributions, so we can molly coddle a thousand legal eagles and not
advance GNU/Linux one tiny inch forward. David Greaves has done the
only logical thing when you hit an impasse; fork.
I certainly wouldn't consider it a fork - as this unfolded I was working with
Niels, Quim and Dawn too. I consider myself as working within the MeeGo project
to find a suitable host for our community services.
I feel I must emphasise that if anyone thinks that I'm working to fork or split
MeeGo or "do it better elswhere" then I really have miscommunicated. I remain
100% committed to the MeeGo project and simply want to resolve our problems in
the best way possible. Heh ... actually, IMO Dawn and Quim seem to favour the
simple 'split' apps.formeego.org from meego.com. I feel I'm actually fighting to
keep everything in one place.
Why? Well, I personally feel there's a comprehensive community story around
MeeGo :
http://mer-l-in.blogspot.com/2011/08/restructure-meego-by-installments.html
(Long read ... complex subject)
LF bears some of the
responsibility for this situation and to let them avoid it in their
stony silence is irresponsible.
'some' ? otherwise +1
David
PS I noticed the cc list is changing. Be polite and mention if/why you
explicitly add or remove someone from the cc.
--
"Don't worry, you'll be fine; I saw it work in a cartoon once..."
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