On May 31, 2007, at 13:36, James Carlson wrote:

> I don't think anyone is saying that you can't create a distribution
> yourself without bothering with any project, community, or governing
> board.  You can.  Knock yourself out.

But that's not what's happening. If a Sun-sponsored team went off  
outside the scope of the community and created a distribution like  
the one being proposed as "Indiana", all hell would break loose here.

> What I understand Keith to be saying (and what I agree with here) is
> that if you're going to do that in the name of OpenSolaris itself --
> not just "PlocherX" but "OpenSolaris Reference Release" -- then that's
> logically something that ought to be a deliberate decision of the
> community, and not something that "just happens" or (worse) "happens
> because some executive at Sun says so."

Right. So the situation we have is:

*  A number of members in several OpenSolaris discussion fora mooted  
the idea of OpenSolaris producing a distribution. Irt's a pretty  
obvious idea and people keep asking where to find that distribution,  
so many of us (me included) felt it was a reasonable proposal.
*  Some of those people actually started sketching out a plan in a  
forum.
*  Meanwhile, Ian Murdock was hired by Sun and he felt this was an  
idea worth investing in
*  Ian got Sun's management bought in to the idea of a new investment  
in this community
*  One of those management was so excited he commented to the press  
during JavaOne, creating fear among those who resent "management  
interference"
*  Ian rapidly got staff allocated and came back to the community  
with news that Sun would commit resources to a community distribution
*  Glynn has started the process of co-ordinating the community  
decision by creating an outline proposal and submitting it to both  
the OGB and the Discuss list for discussion.

We are now at the stage where (as John Plocher said) for some reason  
some high-profile individuals are "throwing up logistical barriers to  
this effort instead of facilitating them", something that has not  
seemed to happen to a project proposal on OpenSolaris before.

> I'm not sure it's necessarily an unmitigated good thing to have a
> single privileged reference release (what happens to distributions
> that decide to innovate in a different direction?), but, as a
> community member, I'd like to see something more concrete about what
> the reference will contain before deciding whether to endorse it.

I agree it may well be a mixed blessing but until we as a community  
get the work started we just won't know. It is ridiculous to  
criticise the effort for not being fully-formed, since one of the  
main fears expressed here has been that of "Sun management"  
presenting a fait accomplis.

Thus, as a community member, I'd like to see a team form and get  
started. I would really like to see the OGB we elected facilitate  
rather than obstruct, please.

S.



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