Re: Q to both candidates: universality

[Chris Lamb <lamby@debian.org>]

Hi Martin,

> What does universality mean to you and the project?

To me, the concept of Debian as the "Universal Operating System" is
primarily one of accomodating an extremely wide variety of technical
use-cases. For example, if someone wanted to put Debian onto their
lawnmower we don't turn around and say "Welll, Debian isn't really
for that kind of thing."

In that sense, we are indeed universal; Debian is used on all sorts
of devices from the humdrum desktop computer to the latest Internet
of Things gadgets. As a somewhat objective confirmation of this, Debian
is regularly picked by hobby projects as a base (eg. Raspbian, et. al).

Personally, I really like this angle to Debian, especially as it
attracts all sorts of viewpoints, inputs and people to the project
who can stimulate interesting ideas, can prevent myopic thinking and
generally improve the operating system for everyone as a whole.

~

Where the "universal" term becomes less useful IMHO is when it is
applied outside of the technical realm. For example, whilst Debian has
a commitment — both de facto and de jure — to promote diversity etc., to
co-opt the phrase or ideas behind "The Universal Operating System" and
apply them the social realm here actually does both worthy concepts a
disservice by diluting their individual impact.

The more we casually throw around the word "universal" or use it as a
cute rhethorical flourish, the less weight it will actually carry.

~

In terms of negatives, technical universality necessarily implies that
we support a large number of (for example) architectures, bootloaders
and — dare I mention it? — init systems. This, naturally, requires more
work and communication.

It also means we must be more conservative as we have users using older
configurations that we can't simply dismiss for the latest and greatest.

Whilst this is an attractive and desirable property that brings many to
Debian, this conservative nature can also been seen leaking in other
angles of the project that don't necessarily need it, such as marketing,
image, etc.


Best wishes,

-- 
      ,''`.
     : :'  :     Chris Lamb
     `. `'`      lamby@debian.org / chris-lamb.co.uk
       `-