Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1997 18:46:37 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> To: karl@mcs.net (Karl Denninger) Cc: spork@super-g.com, dg@root.com, tqbf@enteract.com, karl@mcs.net, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG, current@FreeBSD.ORG, security@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Blacklisting and being "asked" to deinstall FreeBSD - you heard that right! Message-ID: <199702060146.SAA16257@phaeton.artisoft.com> In-Reply-To: <199702052323.RAA18464@Jupiter.Mcs.Net> from "Karl Denninger" at Feb 5, 97 05:23:04 pm
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> But I thought you should know that the response of the core team is to these > kinds of issues. > > A parallel code track will be online within a few days for those who believe > that THIS kind of response is unwarranted under ANY circumstances. Ugh. I hate this. I have to ask the question: How will you organize, such that you don't eventually end up in the exact same boat, with just the names on the crew's quarters changed? I believe this is an organizational problem, and I have yet to see anyone *do* anything about it, other than threaten to reiterate it by starting a parallel code track. Sometimes they follow through on their threats. Mostly, they don't think of starting someting non-parallel because their thinking is already constrained by the organization they are splintering from. Sort of a "parting gift". Now I have to ask: Why start your own parallel code track? What is wrong with the parallel code track OpenBSD is running? Now I have to play scientist: i Run an experiment (386BSD). Note that it results in splinter organizations because the structure of the organization can't equitably reconcile dissent. ii Run it again (NetBSD). Note that it results in splinter organizations because the structure of the organization can't equitably reconcile dissent. iii Run it again (FreeBSD). ... iv Run it again (OpenBSD). ... v Now run it again, only run it several times in parallel, with the inter-group synchronization happening at a (miraculously) agreed upon mutex. Call this mutex "Linus_Torvalds" because it's easy to spell. Note that running it in parallel delays, but does not prevent, the inevitable results. Call the splinter organizations "Red Hat" and other colorful names. Like "Lignux". And then ask from the perspective this provides: What value is in running the experiment a sixth time? Is it reasonable to expect the results to be any different from the other five times it was run? Is the only value in the commemorative life preserver you get, the one with the new boat's name proudly stenciled around its rim? If every time you start a game of Conway's "life", you start from an arrangement that gives you a "traffic light", then restarting the game from the same initial conditions with the same rules is bound to result in another "traffic light". You don't have to be Conway himself to figure this out, any more than you have to be Newton to predict that when you drop a rock, it won't hang there in the air "in very much the same way a brick doesn't". Since you can't change the initial conditions (free software groups agregate for the same reasons free software groups have always agregated), then the only thing you have to work with is the rules. Before you go off on a half-cocked "New Reformed Church Of XXX" crusade, think twice about this. Then if you are still intent on doing it, think a third time about HOW you are going to do it, and HOW you are going to prevent the same inequities, so someone doesn't start the same crusade against you some day because your similarly structured organization of similarly minded people ends up running the social automaton to the same steady state. Then delay implementation until you've addressed all of the issues your thinking has raised, or you will find yourself in the Captain's cabin with a bottle of rum wondering "how did things turn out this way?". Regards, Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.
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