Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2007 16:06:14 -0400 From: Kris Kennaway <kris@obsecurity.org> To: Garrett Cooper <youshi10@u.washington.edu> Cc: FreeBSD Ports Tree Management <portmanager@FreeBSD.org>, freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD and NetBSD's pkgsrc: A strategic synergy for awesomeness Message-ID: <20070401200613.GA33565@xor.obsecurity.org> In-Reply-To: <46101CEA.30402@u.washington.edu> References: <1175455563.1871.33.camel@localhost> <46101CEA.30402@u.washington.edu>
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--xHFwDpU9dbj6ez1V Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Sun, Apr 01, 2007 at 01:58:18PM -0700, Garrett Cooper wrote: > FreeBSD Ports Tree Management wrote: > >Dear FreeBSD ports community, > > > >It has been a good quarter for the ports collection and now is as good a > >time as ever to reflect back on the ports tree as well as plot it's > >future. We have broken 16796 ports. Tomorrow we will fix most of them. > >The past quarter the ports tree has managed to remain open the > >majority of the time. If you count the fact that so many committers > >forgot about the last slush after a while then we were actually open for > >the entire quarter. We feel all our committers and maintainers deserve > >thanks for their tireless work.=20 > > > >However, issues of course still remain. The largest of which being the > >number of PRs for the ports tree. Over the past year ports tree related > >issues have made up roughly 80% of our incoming PRs. At present ports > >related PRs represent naerly 15% of our open PR backlog. core@ has > >expressed their disapproval over our division's numbers. They feel the > >ports tree currently requires too many project resources to maintain > >which distracts us from work in other necessary areas within the > >organization. While the ports tree has been an important symbol of us > >to our customers with a long and innovative history, it has ultimately > >become a resource intensive and losing division which requires us to > >take steps that will allow the other areas of the project to better > >thrive. > > > >We in the ports tree management have received recent approval from core@= =20 > >for > >our resource redirection plan. FreeBSD needs to remain competitive in > >the free OS market so we feel the need to take suitable steps towards > >this end. Following in the path of our competitor DragonflyBSD we > >are pleased to announce a new strategic partnership with NetBSD and it's > >pkgsrc division. We are hereby announcing our intentions to switch over > >to NetBSD's pkgsrc tree and close our own FreeBSD ports tree. While > >some of you may be quick to call this outsourcing there can be nothing > >further from the truth. NetBSD has been one of our technology partners > >for many years as both organizations have routinely shared development > >for our mutual benefit and growth. We prefer to call this move > >"partner-sourcing". We feel this new partnership between FreeBSD and > >NetBSD will invariably produce a synergy of efficient utilization of > >FreeBSD resources for improved operating system development and > >continued organization growth while still maintaining a robust package > >management system. It's very simple, FreeBSD will see an 80% reduction > >in incoming PRs while being able to summarily close nearly 15% of its > >backlog in one shot. What were once our problems will now be someone > >else's problems. > > > >Partner-sourcing the ports tree is a large project and will take some > >time to complete. First, to our loyal customers. You will see no > >noticeable change in our product. We are still committed to providing > >high quality third party applications to meet your computing needs. You > >should feel no apprehension in the continued use of FreeBSD within your > >own organization. In fact, we feel this move will lead to a FreeBSD 7 > >which will finally be the improvement over FreeBSD 4 that you have been > >looking for. =20 > > > >For our employee committers and contractor port maintainers we regret to > >inform you that due to redundancies many of you will be let go from > >FreeBSD. All port maintainer's contracts are immediately terminated. > >If you refer to the organization's Porters Handbook you will note that > >we have the right to terminate maintainer contracts at will. For our > >employee committers we will be restructuring in phases. Those of you > >with work obligations in the other repositories will retain your ports > >tree responsibilities while training the pkgsrc workforce for their new > >role maintaining their products on FreeBSD. Once this phase is complete > >your workload will be redirected towards your roles in the other > >repositories. Those of you with a ports commit bit only, we wish to put > >this gently. We are delivering a .pinkslip to your cubicles in the > >Freefall office currently. By the end of business tomorrow we expect > >you to login and collect your belongings there and in our satellite > >offices. All cubicles will be scheduled for deletion after that. > >Please be aware that members of the FreeBSD Security Team will be > >monitoring your access to ensure that no organization property > >accidentally goes home with you. > > > >We realize that FreeBSD's actions represent a noticeable disruption in > >the lives of our now former employees and contractors and we wish to > >help them by disclosing some exciting news. Due to certain recent > >events our strategic partner NetBSD is going through an unprecedented > >level of growth and expansion in their pkgsrc division. To keep up with > >demand they will be going through an extended hiring phase for new > >committers and maintainers. We feel that many of you would be quality > >candidates for their organization and suggest that as you leave FreeBSD > >for a different career path that you stop and take a look at them so you > >may remain close to the FreeBSD family. > > > > > >With gratitude and looking towards a new future, > > > >Portmanager > > =20 > Wow. I suppose I should try NetBSD now to figure out what it's all=20 > about. Can someone either provide a link or a quick synopsis, of what=20 > the differences are between the current ports tree and NetBSD's pkgsrc tr= ee? > Thanks, > -Garrett You can start by reading here: http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/software/packages.html We hope to have a more detailed migration guide completed shortly. Kris --xHFwDpU9dbj6ez1V Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQFGEBC1Wry0BWjoQKURAg7SAKDfR+iXSXnT3ukyYCCuCOIKOeZXOQCdFnuU sTXiJNZt9JeNet0RsDkPb98= =H2xo -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --xHFwDpU9dbj6ez1V--
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