Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2015 09:55:11 -0700 From: Eitan Adler <lists@eitanadler.com> To: FreeBSD Hackers <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org>, freebsd-current Current <freebsd-current@freebsd.org> Subject: Bazaaring the cathedral (Lowering the Barrier to Entry) Message-ID: <CAF6rxgk0GR6pj2hTQyHWPiu3c_9NyVb-JzOqPgYhWHW6QQqtmA@mail.gmail.com>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Hi all, FreeBSD today has a significant problem of attracting new developers. The lack of new developers manifests itself in a dearth of driver support, inadequate documentation, and trailing third party packages. One of the key reasons for the lack of people is the high barrier of entry to joining the FreeBSD project. While every modern project uses git (usually hosted on github), FreeBSD uses self-hosted subversion. The use of git goes beyond just the choice of version control. It allows for workflows that FreeBSD can't even dream of. The linux kernel has no concept of a committer. Instead anyone can clone the git tree, build a kernel, and call themselves a Linux distribution. Our wiki and code review tools are in an even worse position than our repository. In order to contribute you need to send an email to clusteradm@ and hope they deem you worthy enough of access. The bug tracking system is in a better shape but isn't perfect: while any user can create an account, their privileges are limited: they can't help close out bad PRs, reclassify good ones, or do other generally useful work. To solve this problem I propose a simple solution: self-serve commit access. We create a web service on accounts.freebsd.org via which users can create themselves a freefall account. In addition to a freefall account, the identical username would be created for the wiki and phabricator, bugzilla, and any other service we might provide. This will allow us to quickly gain large number of contributors, who will be able to make better progress on our missing features, and rectify some of the drawbacks listed above. Today I hope we turn ourselves from the cathedral into a truly open and democratic project! -- Eitan Adler
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?CAF6rxgk0GR6pj2hTQyHWPiu3c_9NyVb-JzOqPgYhWHW6QQqtmA>