Re: tb's questions for the candidates
> A. What do you think is the greatest challenge facing Debian in the
> coming year? What would you do as Project Leader to try and meet this
> challenge?
We have quite a few challenges coming ahead. There is this SCO case: we
shouldn't laugh too hard at them, because that makes us look bad.
Then, we must find the Precious. Last time it was seen on the finger of
George Bush, which is quite worrysome to say the least. Mr. Bush being
friends with Evil Companies Producing Non-Free Software, it is our duty
to retrieve the Ring and destroy it. It is our duty, because we're the
distro with the most strict guidelines, and besides, we have the most
talented people too >;)
Yet another challenge, is making Debian more popular, an idea was
suggested by Amaya (in the form of `Debian needs more women'), which I
covered in detail here:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2004/debian-vote-200403/msg00086.html
> B. What should the Project Leader's role be when Debian comes into
> significant and important conflict with other free software
> organizations? (As an example, I'm thinking of the conflict with the
> FSF about the DFSG vs. GNU FDL.)
I think I partially covered this question in a previous mail, see here:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2004/debian-vote-200403/msg00037.html
The same approach can be used to solve conflicts with other
organisations. I'm working on an ESR skin, and if someone could tell me
who do I need to make a voodoo doll about for the XFree license change,
I'd be grateful.
> C. Being the Project Leader is a major responsibility. What are the
> other Project-related and non-Project-related responsibilities which
> would compete for your time, and how would you manage that conflict?
I'm the primary author of dpatch2, but that codebase has stabilised, so
it's not a too tedious task. Other than that, my most important package
is tama, and is a great responsibility. As you can see from a few mails
of mine (like http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2004/debian-vote-200403/msg00089.html),
breeding a tamagotchi can be quite dangerous, and needs lots of
attention. Just like caring for a project would require similar amounts
of care and attention. Sometimes, I'd like to think of Debian as a big
family of highly themed tamagotchis... At those times, my World Dictator
self is ruling my mind, obviously.
How would I manage the conflict? There's no problem. I'll just split
into two, or duplicate myself.
> D. People become Debian Maintainers by a complex administrative
> process, involving three different folks who have to agree on any new
> Maintainer: the Advocate, the Application Manager, and the Accounts
> Managers. I'm not interested in the details of how this process
> works. My question is: Should the Constitution specify at least who
> has the actual formal approval over this process? In other words,
> right now it's not clear what the exact lines of authority are.
I think our Constitution already specifies who has the final word (DAM),
and iirc, and as quoted by Martin, he is a delegate of the DPL. My
thinking is, that the line of authority is something like this: Yama
(the oversized tamagotchi of mine) spares the life of all who believe in
him, so the DPL surviving the apocalypse delegates the DAM. The DAM, so
that he doesn't have to do everything by himself, forms the Front Desk,
who in turn, delegate the bulk of the job to Application Managers.
However, since people suck and nominate^Wapply for fun, the NM Cabal
introduced the Advocate step. NM Cabal being the DAM, the Front Desk,
the Application Managers and other interested people.
Seems pretty clear to me! :)
> E. Debian does not have a formal process for removing a delinquent
> developer. Should we have one? And if so, what are the sorts of
> things for which it would be appropriate to remove a developer? (I'm
> not inviting speculation here on what such a process would look like.)
Yes we should have one. For violating the DMUP, being rude to users and
not doing their job as outlined in the developers reference (hi
Marillat), calling tama names, frightening away potential female
developers, etc, one would need to face serious consequences. Not
necessarily a remove from the project... worse. Taking him to a sail in
the caribbean on the Sea Monkey, and making him Governor of a deserted
island, which has no animals, only a few plants and lots of rum in a
hidden cage.
However, you didn't want to know the process, so forget the last two
sentences, please. The rest, I hope, answers your question. (Though,
suggestions to extend my list of BadThingsToDo(tm) are welcome)
--
Gergelybrush Nagywood
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