Re: [Gnu-arch-users] the way forward

[Martin Langhoff]

On 9/7/05, Thomas Lord <address@hidden> wrote:
> 5On Tue, 2005-09-06 at 22:52 +0100, Robin Green wrote:
> 
> > The general point: at _least_ two distro vendor startups - Canonical and
> > rpath - appear to be interested in supporting Gnu/linux users in the spirit
> > of Free Software, i.e. supporting and encouraging custom modifications.
...
> >From an engineering perspective, I question why we need platform
> distribution companies *at that scale* *at all*.   It seems to me like

Certain changes take time. The current evolution is towards smaller
companies and closely related distributions, many of them based on
Debian. Canonical is significantly smaller than RedHat, while RedHat
is much smaller than the platform distributors of yore (IBM,
Microsoft, etc).
 
> A federation of much smaller distro companies could do the same job much
> more securely and while encouraging far higher quality results. 

This _is_ happening around Debuan currently -- Canonical is just the
most visible player.

> Yes, they are.  Hopefully if I reiterate why often enough it'll sink in.
> I've got a few days.... :-)

Certain processes take time -- and as an individual it is risky to put
yourself in the hands of what is a shifting marketplace. As risky
things go, if you get the timing right you are golden, if you get it
wrong you are in trouble. Regardless of personal effort and
achievements, unfortunately.

> Talk to me in 5 years, assuming I'm still here, which is currently
> rather unlikely.

I trust that in 5 years we'll still see you in the FOSS space, well
funded, and working on fun projects. To get there, however, you'll be
better served by moving on even if you are right about some things.
Few people will employ with someone (as contractor or permanent) who
makes an opening statement of how they've been wronged by the previous
employer.

It's one of those things you don't do on a first date either ;-)

I am very thankful of your work on arch/tla, and I think it was a huge
contribution as a tool and as an exploration of the SCM space. And I
am very hopeful that you'll leave it behind, with all the good and bad
things it had for you, and find a new job, with new challenges that
you find engaging and help you put all this behind.

cheers,


martin