Bug#727708: loose ends for init system decision
On Mon, Dec 30, 2013 at 5:51 PM, Russ Allbery wrote:
> Michael Gilbert writes:
>
>> Doesn't a TC mandate on the default init system in some sense violate
>> Debian's spirit of meritocracy?
>
> I believe that we have enough information to make an informed choice
> already, and that the sides are fairly well-defined and hardened in their
> opinions. That means that this dispute falls under section 6.1.2 of the
> constitution:
I entirely concur that the social problem resides rightly within the
jurisdiction of the TC. With that said, however, it is worth
considering whether the role of the TC may be more effective if
directed at the root (the social), rather than the branches (the
technical choice), of the problem. The key, I think, is for the TC to
provide a reasonable path for those currently identifying with any of
the hardened camps to redirect their negative energy away from
argument and toward something more positive: technical work and actual
code.
> Regardless of how we structure the installer, we need to have a default
> init system (unless we plan on making every user choose, which I would
> dismiss out of hand as a horrible UI experience for the average user, who
> really doesn't care).
As stated in my suggestion, initsel would of course always have a
default, and only "expert" users would be empowered to travel the road
less traveled. The no default idea that gets thrown about a lot is,
of course, infeasible as a matter of practicality.
> Init systems are not like desktop environments: they require work by a
> huge swath of the developer community, and the average user does not
> generally switch from one to the other.
I think, on the contrary, the nmu procedure is quite effective at
enabling a small subset of the developer community (those that have a
strong shared interest) to effect large changes across the entire
archive (of course when maintainers stay out of the way,).
This process has been demonstrated many times (although slow-going)
for lots of other sweeping changes (e.g. buildflags, usr/share/doc,
etc.).
Best wishes,
Mike
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