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Linux Foundation Quietly Drops Community Representation (dreamwidth.org)

Posted by timothy on from the not-the-greatest-omen dept.

The Linux Foundation, though it's straightforwardly not a grassroots organization along the lines of the FSF or EFF, has long had a degree of non-corporate involvement by way of community-elected members on its board. Now, writes new submitter Ensign Nemo, that's no longer true. An excerpt from Matthew Garrett's blog on the change: The by-laws were amended to drop the clause that permitted individual members to elect any directors. Section 3.3(a) now says that no affiliate members may be involved in the election of directors, and section 5.3(d) still permits at-large directors but does not require them[2]. The old version of the bylaws are here - the only non-whitespace differences are in sections 3.3(a) and 5.3(d).

These changes all happened shortly after Karen Sandler announced that she planned to stand for the Linux Foundation board during a presentation last September. A short time later, the "Individual membership" program was quietly renamed to the "Individual supporter" program and the promised benefit of being allowed to stand for and participate in board elections was dropped (compare the old page to the new one).

6 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. Responsible party? by spaceman375 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Who did this, under what authority? Rather critical information is missing.

    --
    On the one hand you take life too seriously, and on the other, you do not take playful existence seriously enough. Seth
  2. Linus by 110010001000 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Unless Linus is on the board of an Linux related organization it is irrelevant to me. All hail Linus!

  3. Linux is becoming a shitshow, even before this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I really hate to say this as a long time Linux user and open source contributor, but everything about Linux is becoming a real shitshow these days.

    This Linux Foundation debacle isn't even an overly important one. But it is just one of many such incidents to hit Linux lately.

    The first shitshow issue is the GPLv3. The GPLv2 was restrictive enough, but the GPLv3 takes it from being somewhat workable in practice to being totally untenable. The GPLv3 has made a mockery of the GPL family of licenses. It has gotten so bad that developers are now preferring the MIT and BSD licenses.

    The second shitshow issue is systemd. Whether you like it or hate it, the way that it has been forced on so many Linux users should disappoint you. Linux used to be about choice; now it's about using the software the distro maintainers tell you to use, and fuck you if you don't like it. With all of the major Linux distros forcing systemd on their users, the only options for not using it is a legacy distro like Slackware, an impractical distro like Gentoo, or by rolling your own distro (which totally defeats the purpose of using a distro in the first place).

    The third shitshow issue is GNOME 3. GNOME 2 was the premiere Linux desktop environment, it worked well, and it was widely liked. GNOME 3 has been the complete opposite. Its touch-oriented misdesign renders it nearly unusable on desktops, and people in general hate it with a passion. The way users have been treated like shit is unbelievable.

    The fourth shitshow issue is Wayland. We keep hearing about how it will soon replace X, but we've been hearing that since like 2009 and nothing ever materializes.

    The fifth shitshow issue is Firefox. The destruction of its UI and user experience by Mozilla has rendered it unusable. Now many former Firefox users are forced to use Chrome. At least users on Windows can use IE or Edge, or users on OS X can use Safari. On Linux, the only practical choices are Firefox and Chrome. A lot of Linux users who don't want to use Chrome are left with no choice but to use it, thanks to how awful Firefox has gotten.

    When I look at the current state of affairs within the Linux ecosystem, I don't know what to do. I need to buy a new computer soon. I know if I go with Linux, I'll be subjected to a lot of bullshit thanks to all of these shitshows, and I'll get an awful user experience. So as much as I don't want to use Windows 10 or OS X, they're starting to look like damn good options. At least I'll get a reasonable user experience out of them, which is something I won't get from Linux. Or maybe I should just do what so many others have done, and move to FreeBSD.

    1. Re:Linux is becoming a shitshow, even before this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Those of us whom you've wrongly labeled as "astroturfers" actually tend to be long time users of Linux, both personally and professionally.

      Many of us are responsible for managing thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Linux servers or VM instances.

      We've also made many critical contributions to open source software.

      If you're using any open source software right now, directly or indirectly, you're probably using code written by us.

      We're merely venting our frustration as we watch Linux, both the software and the community, fall into disgrace.

      Linux and open source software used to be about doing things better than proprietary software.

      It used to be about building a solid community where we'd help each other out.

      Now the quality of the software has become shitty, and tainted with shitty licenses like the GPLv3.

      Now the community has become rotten, having been infiltrated by non-technical folks masquerading as though they can contribute something of value, when they clearly cannot.

      Open source software used to be about writing and sharing damn good code. Now it's about social justice, combating various perceived -isms, and everything but writing and sharing good software!

      Besides, what the fuck kind of company would pay people to disparage Linux on Slashdot of all places?! This is a dying site, where it's a miracle when a submission gets over just 100 comments! The fall of this site parallels the degradation of Linux and its community.

      But if we long time Linux users can get paid for merely expressing our frustration here, let us know how!

      You can provide us with the contact details of the people to get in touch with at these "non-Linux companies" you speak of, right?

      You weren't just making false allegations, were you? Nah, you couldn't have been. So provide us with the contact details, so we can get paid for expressing our frustration.

    2. Re:Linux is becoming a shitshow, even before this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      When you say that the "enemies of FOSS are well-known", are you talking about Red Hat by any chance?

      As a Linux user, Microsoft and Apple have never caused me any problems.

      Yet on almost a daily basis something that Red Hat (or somebody working with/for them) shat out causes me problems.

      Typically it's systemd. Sometimes it's GNOME 3. Other times it's PulseAudio. Now and then it's D-Bus. Occasionally it's NetworkManager.

      And you know what? I don't even use a Fedora-based distro! I use Debian!

      The greatest harm to Linux and its ecosystem doesn't come from outside. It comes from within.

  4. Re: Like most foundations, ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Exactly. Those Republicans wouldn't be Republicans if they weren't racists, sexists, ignorant, close-minded, and usually a rapist.

    It's sad to see how liberal this site has become. It used to be a good tech site, but now it's turned into mostly a liberal hugbox.