Re: Proposal and call for participation, Linux Standard Base Project
At 06:54 AM 5/19/98 -0500, Ean Schuessler wrote:
>On Tue, May 19, 1998 at 12:56:56PM +0100, Ian Jackson wrote:
>> However, I think we should take part. I haven't made any statement to
>> Bruce because it's not clear to me what the developers want, and
>> because I don't (unfortunately) have time to participate myself.
>
>Well, here is where I would like to underscore something. Bruce is
>trying to create an "open" forum (or at least some kind of forum) for
>building a universal base distribution. I would gently remind the
>audience that Debian _IS_ an open and participatory forum for creating
>a Linux distribution. Creating a universal base distribution is a
>simple simple task compared to the greater labor that Debian has
>undertaken. We have the resources, the organizational structure and
>the experience to manage an effort of this type. Furthermore, providing
>a basic infrastructure for commercial distributions has always been an
>intent of the Debian project.
The only problem is, debian is way too big. In order to make a real base,
it has to be developed from the start to only be a base. i.e. include all
the important utilities, and provide a policy for others to follow, but not
be a full fledged dist. Once you're a full fledged dist, you lose the power
to be a base for others, unless your market share is huge, so by others
basing themselves on you, they gain access to a bigger market. This is why
many other dists have been based on Red Hat (Caldera, to name one), even
though debian would probably have been a better dist for them to base their
release on.
>Bruce tried to establish a command position within Debian and failed.
>Having failed Bruce tried to establish a new Debian under a different
>name ("distribution for the users") and having apparently grown tired
>of this is now trying to establish an organization that will have
>formidable powers over every distribution that participates. Having
>seen Bruce's failure to sublimate his needs to those of the group
>I have little confidence that his antics will be different in
>this new context.
Debian got to big for Bruce, I think. As he said many times, he hardly knew
a lot of the developers, and since it was getting too big for him, it was
also losing its "fun'ness", and since it wasn't fun anymore, he became a
little totaliteranian. I think that in a smaller setting, we'll see the
bruce of the pre Debian 1.2 era, though I wasn't really around before Debian
1.1, so I don't know what he was like then.
Shaya
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