Bug#727708: init system decision-making concerns
On Sat, 2014-02-08 at 22:52 +1100, Dmitry Smirnov wrote:
> Also I'd like to notice that shopping for most feature-rich init system
> might be not our goal after all. OpenRC may be the safest choice that might
> satisfy majority of developers as it appears to have the least number of
> objections. I have impression that OpenRC have far less passionate opponents
> than Systemd.
That there are less "passionate opponents" is likely only because OpenRC
changes, and achieves, less. "Passionate" opposition typically occurs
when things change, even for the better. I don't think that is a good
metric to choose a system. I don't believe a majority of developers
would actually believe OpenRC to be a particularly good choice either.
More likely the lesser number of public objections to OpenRC is
explained by two other reasons. First, fewer developers have looked at
it enough to have even a superficial idea they could object to. Second,
it already seems to be a near consensus that OpenRC is not a top choice,
so people don't see a reason to argue against it. Using the criterion of
least objections, there are even less objections to the alternative of
creating and using a new port of launchd. But if it actually looked
plausible that this alternative might win, a lot more people would voice
their objections.
> Finally I'm sure everybody is already getting exhausted by long debates
> about this topic. At this point it might be tempting to approach on
> decision, any decision, to put this to end. This is a way to make mistakes
> of judgement. Unless there is a rush we all need to slow down and perhaps
> even take a break for several weeks to clear our heads and make a balanced,
> well thought decision. Taking break may be beneficial for the quality of
> decision making.
It doesn't look likely to me that delaying the decision would have
beneficial effects, at least not greater than the cost of the delay
itself. If the CTTE could find 5 members willing to vote "systemd is the
default init for Jessie" (and nothing more) above FD, and do that within
a day, I'm pretty sure that would have a better outcome than any
improvement they would plausibly make after waiting for weeks more.
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