From owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jan 6 23:13:21 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D9FA816A4CE for ; Tue, 6 Jan 2004 23:13:21 -0800 (PST) Received: from papagena.rockefeller.edu (user-0cdfenm.cable.mindspring.com [24.215.186.246]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 4EEE843D46 for ; Tue, 6 Jan 2004 23:13:20 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from rsidd@online.fr) Received: (qmail 3900 invoked by uid 1002); 7 Jan 2004 07:13:21 -0000 Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 02:13:21 -0500 From: Rahul Siddharthan To: Mark Linimon Message-ID: <20040107071321.GA3781@online.fr> Mail-Followup-To: Mark Linimon , freebsd-chat@freebsd.org References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: X-Operating-System: Linux 2.4.23 i686 User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.4i cc: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Where is FreeBSD going? X-BeenThere: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Non technical items related to the community List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2004 07:13:22 -0000 Mark Linimon said on Jan 7, 2004 at 00:23:04: > > the turning point in my feelings towards FreeBSD was probably > > the chucking-out of Matt Dillon. > > OK, fair enough, but now, with all the water that's under the > bridge, what do you suggest the FreeBSD project do about it? > > Matt's got his own project and his own unique interests now. Which is a good thing. He's probably better off as a "benevolent dictator" (like Linus) than as part of a fractious project. > What would you like to see happen? I am not asking this to > be argumentative; I think it's a fair question. Well, Matt was just one of several things that happened back then. The rest is ancient history too; the main other thing that bothers me today is one I've already brought up on this list, a public, unsupported (and almost certainly untrue) allegation by a core member that a contributor who'd recently fought with the FreeBSD foundation was the "troll" and had "admitted to it". I just cannot see that as "water under the bridge"; if it had happened to me I wouldn't be willing to forgive and forget it. Clearly some important people in FreeBSD are willing to hit below the belt when there are personal disagreements; and as long as these people remain in FreeBSD, I know there will be problems in the future too. But I don't foresee them being chucked out as Matt was. So what would I like to see happen? I don't know. Perhaps forget it all and take DragonFly for a spin (I already did actually, before switching to FreeBSD 5; neither of them works flawlessly on my laptop but I can live with either.) And hope it avoids FreeBSD's human-relations pains as it grows. (I'm optimistic: a benevolent dictator like Matt, or Linus or Guido van Rossum or Larry Wall, can resolve conflicts more effectively than a core team without a strong central figure.) And hope that other people disenchanted with FreeBSD will find something constructive to do, like Matt and others, and unlike our friend the troll. Rahul