On Jan 23, 2008 8:40 AM, Eric Boutilier <Eric.Boutilier at sun.com> wrote: > Shawn -- thanks for including me as a Core Contributor in this > proposal. I'm /very/ interested, however at this point, I'm still > undecided about supporting it. Reason being, back in June I was > opposed to having a distros Community Group (see message copied > below), and unless I've missed something here, the rationale behind > my decision, as expressed in my and Peter Tribble's text below, is > still just as valid.
I believe I can address some of your concerns. First, this proposed Community Group is not to find a home for Indiana, though they are certainly welcome should they so choose. I actually proposed this Community Group because I intend to start a distribution project, and did not feel that any of the existing Community Groups were a proper home for one. Second, it seems as though a Community Group that has its efforts focused solely on Distribution Projects would be better suited to ensuring the sustained growth and success of Distribution Projects in our community. Third, the other distributions that you have spoken of (excluding Indiana) do not currently have any projects on OpenSolaris.org. Belenix does have a mailing list sponsored by Advocacy though. I feel as though that the advent of a new set of tools and the expansion of user groups, thanks to the efforts of the Advocacy Community Group, is going to re-enforce the need for a specific Community Group that has the experience and focus needed to help guide new members wanting to create or contribute to community distributions. I am also happy to note that both Moinak Ghosh (of Belenix) and Erast Benson (of Nexenta) have agreed to be part of the proposed Distribution Community Group. Fourth, the creation of this Community Group ensures that we have a properly scoped community that addresses some of the concerns raised by Roy Fielding and others some months ago. Finally, I really believe that the only way to ensure that fragmentation does not happen for OpenSolaris-based distribution projects within our community is to ensure that there is a single, managing group for them. > From: Eric Boutilier <Eric.Boutilier at Sun.COM> > Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 13:24:25 -0500 (CDT) > To: Peter Tribble <peter.tribble at gmail.com> > Cc: ug-discuss at opensolaris.org, OpenSolaris Marketing <opensolaris-mktg at > opensolaris.org>, Simon Phipps <webmink at sun.com>, Stephen Lau <stevel at > sun.com> > Subject: Re: Sponsor Project Indiana > > On Wed, 6 Jun 2007, Peter Tribble wrote: > > On 6/6/07, Eric Boutilier <Eric.Boutilier at sun.com> wrote: > > > Should we maybe send an heads-up message to the leadership of > > > the five distros? (Six including Indiana.) I suspect some of > > > them would not otherwise know about this effort. > > > > Having a distribution community proposal come from elsewhere > > without their involvement and agreement would seem undesirable. > > In fact, they should be leading such an effort - one might rightly > > ask why they did not come up with the proposal themselves? > > > > I have some problems with a distributions community. One is that > > the immediate objective seems to be to find Indiana a home, which > > seems backward (especially given that the Install community is a > > pretty good fit, and while not all the core contributors have chimed > > in yet, we have the required 3 +1 votes and no -1 yet). The other is > > that, constitutionally, a community exists to initiate and manage > > projects, so that if it were to do what it's supposed to then the > > distributions would either (a) choose to not be a part of the > > distributions community, or (b) no longer be independent agents > > free to do their own thing. Neither option seems desirable, so why > > create a formal management structure? > > Good point. Code talks. > > So I agree that the degree and diversity of interest that comes from the > distros (or not) will strengthen (or weaken) this proposal proportionally, > and that it should probably be aborted if the distros mostly explicitely > object to the creation of a distros community group. > > Eric > -- Shawn Walker, Software and Systems Analyst http://binarycrusader.blogspot.com/ "To err is human -- and to blame it on a computer is even more so." - Robert Orben
