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Debian Delayed by Disenchanted Developers
Torus Kas writes "Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 was supposed to be due by December 4 and development is currently frozen. Apparently the saga was triggered by disenchantment towards funding of $6,000 for each of the 2 release managers to work full-time in order to speed up the development. Many unpaid developers simply put off Debian work to work on something else."
I understood what he meant, and I rarely use Linux and have never used Debian.
Anonymous Cowards suck.
Appendly, you are the one is NOT well educated. Does you or your grandma have to worry about the release process for Windows?
I don't often find myself quoting Scripture, but I remembered one passage in connection with this that I felt was appropriate...
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
Matthew 7:16-20, King James Version
I've noticed that people associated with Debian love talking about moral superiority, the project's "social contract," and it's commitment to principle. However, things are less attractive beneath the surface. I've never heard of another distribution which has suffered from so much internal infighting, or that has caused as much division externally. As I read recently, before corporations began getting involved, Microsoft had no reason to see Linux as a threat, because Linux's volunteer developers spend so much time fighting amongst themselves that despite a genuinely technically viable system having developed, the mainstream population is still alienated by the degree of internal conflict. For this conflict and division, Debian and the Free Software Foundation (and those who think in similar ways) are almost entirely to blame. They claim it's because they care about principle...in reality, what they really care about is retaining the ability to tell other people what to do and how to think.
Personally I'd like to see Debian (as it currently exists organisationally) collapse entirely, and for the codebase to be adopted by Ubuntu, or other projects which will hopefully be run by people who are not so interested in dominating others.
I saw someone predict on kerneltrap once that the FSF also is unlikely to last, long term. Organisations are only worth keeping for as long as they actually work *towards* human benefit. Once the focus instead becomes on dominating others, attempting to dictate how they think, and limiting self-determination, it's time for them to go. What Jesus says here about bad fruit being burned does not necessarily need to be interpreted in the classic apocalyptic sense; rather, it simply means that ultimately, only those institutions which actually consistently benefit people tend to last. Those which are not beneficial end up being routed around, and fade away as naturally as rain drying with the return of the sun after a thunderstorm.