Slashdot Mirror
NetBSD Packages Collection Freeze
jschauma writes "Starting Monday, October 6th, 2003, the NetBSD Packages
Collection will be frozen in order to stabilize pkgsrc on the various
supported platforms. As Alistair Crooks explains in his
message to the tech-pkg mailing list, this freeze is done so that the
pkgsrc team can shake out bugs, fix broken packages and close pkgsrc related
problem reports. If you want to help out, you can take a look at the PR database and
submit patches."
If I recall my Larry Niven correctly, a frozen corpse is called a "corpsicle".
I, for one, welcome our *BSD frozen zombie overlords. Next time they are in town, I hope they drop by for a nice frozen treat and take advantate of the hospitality of our coffin-sized freezers.
All our times have come
Here but now they're gone
Mac OS don't fear the reaper
Nor do the windows, SUN or the rain..we can be like they are
Come on baby...don't fear the reaper
Baby take my hand...don't fear the reaper
We'll be able to fly...don't fear the reaper
BSD's bought the farm....
Distro is done
Here but now they're gone
Romeo and Juliet
Are together in eternity...Romeo and Juliet
40,000 server crashes every day...Like Romeo and Juliet
40,000 workstations reformatted everyday...Redefine happiness
Another 40,000 coming everyday...We can be like they are
Come on baby...don't fear the reaper
Baby take my hand...don't fear the reaper
We'll be able to fly...don't fear the reaper
BSD's bought the farm...
Love of two is one
Here but now they're gone
Came the last night of sadness
And it was clear she couldn't log on
Then the file was opened the wind appeared
The mobo blew then disappeared
The curtains flew then Jordan Hubbard and Michael Smith appeared...saying don't be afraid
Come on baby...and she had no fear
And she ran to them...then they started to fly
They looked backward and said goodbye...she had become like they are
She had taken their hand...she had become like they are
Come on baby...don't fear the reaper "
Perhaps if you tell us your name and address, we'll get you and Theo together so you can do exactly that to him.
The End of FreeBSD
[ed. note: in the following text, former FreeBSD developer Mike Smith gives his reasons for abandoning FreeBSD]
When I stood for election to the FreeBSD core team nearly two years ago, many of you will recall that it was after a long series of debates during which I maintained that too much organisation, too many rules and too much formality would be a bad thing for the project.
Today, as I read the latest discussions on the future of the FreeBSD project, I see the same problem; a few new faces and many of the old going over the same tired arguments and suggesting variations on the same worthless schemes. Frankly I'm sick of it.
FreeBSD used to be fun. It used to be about doing things the right way. It used to be something that you could sink your teeth into when the mundane chores of programming for a living got you down. It was something cool and exciting; a way to spend your spare time on an endeavour you loved that was at the same time wholesome and worthwhile.
It's not anymore. It's about bylaws and committees and reports and milestones, telling others what to do and doing what you're told. It's about who can rant the longest or shout the loudest or mislead the most people into a bloc in order to legitimise doing what they think is best. Individuals notwithstanding, the project as a whole has lost track of where it's going, and has instead become obsessed with process and mechanics.
So I'm leaving core. I don't want to feel like I should be "doing something" about a project that has lost interest in having something done for it. I don't have the energy to fight what has clearly become a losing battle; I have a life to live and a job to keep, and I won't achieve any of the goals I personally consider worthwhile if I remain obligated to care for the project.
Discussion
I'm sure that I've offended some people already; I'm sure that by the time I'm done here, I'll have offended more. If you feel a need to play to the crowd in your replies rather than make a sincere effort to address the problems I'm discussing here, please do us the courtesy of playing your politics openly.
From a technical perspective, the project faces a set of challenges that significantly outstrips our ability to deliver. Some of the resources that we need to address these challenges are tied up in the fruitless metadiscussions that have raged since we made the mistake of electing officers. Others have left in disgust, or been driven out by the culture of abuse and distraction that has grown up since then. More may well remain available to recruitment, but while the project is busy infighting our chances for successful outreach are sorely diminished.
There's no simple solution to this. For the project to move forward, one or the other of the warring philosophies must win out; either the project returns to its laid-back roots and gets on with the work, or it transforms into a super-organised engineering project and executes a brilliant plan to deliver what, ultimately, we all know we want.
Whatever path is chosen, whatever balance is struck, the choosing and the striking are the important parts. The current indecision and endless conflict are incompatible with any sort of progress.
Trying to dissect the above is far beyond the scope of any parting shot, no matter how distended. All I can really ask of you all is to let go of the minutiae for a moment and take a look at the big picture. What is the ultimate goal here? How can we get there with as little overhead as possible? How would you like to be treated by your fellow travellers?
Shouts
To the Slashdot "BSD is dying" crowd - big deal. Death is part of the cycle; take a look at your soft, pallid bodies and consider that right this very moment, parts of you are dying. See? It's not so bad.
To the bulk of the FreeBSD committerbase and the developer community at large - keep your eyes on the real goals. It's when you get distracted by the politickers
and it's a pretty good indication that BSD is dead.
I didn't know you liked to watch that..
Dumbshit... learn to spell. It's eulogy. If you're going to be an asshole troll, at least try to hide your 65 IQ score.
There have been more mods down (15) for this story than mods up (6). Pathetic.
So just remember, kiddies: *BSD is alive and well: AC trolls are a part of this BSD daemon's balanced breakfast...
noticed in the bugs list someone has my pet peeve /var/db/pkg/package_name
mentioned, namly the updating packages suck. There's
nothing worse than updating libiconv and wondering
why gnome and kde collection has disappeared. I've gotten
to where instead of pkg_delete, I just do rm -rf
Hopefully this will improve.
Amen. Especially with all of these OpenSSH and OpenSSL bugs recently. I rebuild OpenSSL and then I have to rebuild OpenSSH and Pine, because they use the OpenSSL libraries.
This is painful on a P-75. Not painful enough to get me to switch over to Debian or something like that, but painful.
(And I know there are precompiled binaries for some of this stuff, but not for i386. Gee, I wish I had some kind of fucked up Japan only computer so that I didn't have to build everything by hand.)
--Matt