Re: Proposal: let’s have a GR about the init system

On Sat, 2013-10-26 at 00:36 +0300, Uoti Urpala wrote:

I don't think the technical experience would be that much of an issue,

but I do see being employed by Canonical as a very substantial conflict

of interest. IIRC Canonical has made an official statement that they

will keep supporting Upstart and believe in it. This is a fairly visible

company choice. Your work environment has at least at some level an

official policy that Upstart should be considered better than systemd.

Ubuntu still wants to keep using Upstart, but if Debian chooses systemd,

Ubuntu will likely also need to admit that Upstart failed and plan for a

switch.

If your vote decides that Debian will choose systemd, and as a result

upstreams conclusively drop any support for Upstart while Ubuntu still

wants to keep using it, do you believe this will not have any negative

consequences for your career at Canonical? I consider this the biggest

question about the conflict of interest, more than direct "you must vote

this way" pressure from your employer.

I would see it the same way... it's not only a question whether
objective ruling would be made, but also whether it could bring our
tech-ctte members into troubles when they decide (i.e. against
upstream).

And another issue: If e.g. tech-ctte (with some Canonical employees in
it) now decides in favour of upstart... then we'll see forever people
who challenge the neutrality and objectiveness of such decision.

The best would probably be, if people who are either
- directly involved in the development of any of the discussed
init-systems (in the sense of playing a bigger part)
- who work for a company which is pushing the respective system (RedHat,
Canonical) or
- who maintain the respective package in Debian
should abstain from the decision, but just provide their technical input
and arguments.

Cheers,
Chris.