Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 10:59:03 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert Watson <rwatson@FreeBSD.org> To: j mckitrick <jcm@FreeBSD-uk.eu.org> Cc: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD core team questions Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.3.96L.1020517105119.33209F-100000@fledge.watson.org> In-Reply-To: <20020517140016.A97742@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org>
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On Fri, 17 May 2002, j mckitrick wrote: > I have a question or two about the current core election. A few of the > remarks made by the candidates, such as 'the project is broken' sound a > bit disconcerting. I am sure there are and always will be problems with > getting a large number of volunteers to work in a coherent, civil > manner, while keeping the technology and stability of the OS at proper > priority. However, maybe I have missed a lot of news, but is the > project in *that* bad of shape that we can say or even imply that it is > 'broken'? > > Also, I don't want to pick on the candidate who made the remark, because > several other comments say about the same thing. > > NOTE: Please CC me, as I am not currently subscribed. Thanks. As with any large project involving large numbers of people, there is some inevitable personal friction and disagreement. To assert that the project is fundamentally broken displays a lack of understanding of the accomplishments of the project over the last few years, and the state of the project today. I think it could be successfully argued that there are some improvements that could be made to the structure and procedures of the project to help with some of the perceived problems, and that's hopefully what the candidates are referring to. Most of the comments I've seen from candidates have centered on addressing specific problems. For example, the need to more rapidly build concensus following conflict on a technical issue, or how to address the issue delegation from the core team to other entities. As someone currently on the core team, I can only point out that the path here is relatively clear, because we have some good (and, of course, some less good) examples of effective delegation and conflict resolution. FWIW, I think it's also worth observing that any election will include inevitable rhetoric. As someone interested in the real work (that is to say, daily operation of the project and accomplishing the technical goals of the project), it's necessary to look beyond that rhetoric. :-) Robert N M Watson FreeBSD Core Team, TrustedBSD Project robert@fledge.watson.org NAI Labs, Safeport Network Services To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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