Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 22:27:58 -0400 From: Sergey Babkin <babkin@bellatlantic.net> To: Paul Richards <paul@freebsd-services.com> Cc: void <float@firedrake.org>, Anthony.Wyatt@csiro.au, freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: It's not fun anymore. (Mike resigns from core) Message-ID: <3CE1C7AE.5E2D8743@bellatlantic.net> References: <4ABEF4D887D40745B8D6804C2FFA939F1A75FF@hermes.la.csiro.au> <20020509034231.GA9051@parhelion.firedrake.org> <1020917084.15680.19.camel@lobster.originative.co.uk>
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Paul Richards wrote: > > On Thu, 2002-05-09 at 05:42, void wrote: > > FreeBSD is a research project, but it's also a production-quality > > operating system. It is important that it be "loose" enough to keep > > hackers interested, but it is also important that it be managed carefully > > enough that companies like Yahoo (which employs at least one core team > > member, if I'm not mistaken) can continue to depend on it. > > > > I think that the successful management of the tension between these > > goals has a lot to do with why FreeBSD is so useful and interesting. > > I guess that these conflicting goals also have a lot to do with the > > conflicts within core that Mike alluded to. > > I think that's pretty close to the truth of it. The project is torn > between the anarchical desires of those who just want to hack code with > the aim of just having fun by doing cool stuff, and those who see it as > a product and want to impose more management on what happens in order to > protect the integrity of the product from release to release. I think that the balance can be formulated quite simple: "whatever you do, don't break the existing things". Though actually executing this policy will be more difficult :-( There are way to many people with hands itching on demolishing the old stuff rather than building the new stuff. And, well, when building the new stuff it's good to provide opportunities to extend it in future with yet-newer stuff in a backwards-compatible way. -SB To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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