Important. Please Read.
Ok, it has come down to this. All of you need to read this in its
entirety. It is very important. From beginning to end.
The development of Debian needs help. From all of you. Ian has taken
way too much upon himself so far (on his own choice). It is time to
expand the `work base' of Debian and have a more decentralized
organization here.
I know that many of you have wondered, and explicitly asked, why
Debian is not like this now. I mean, it's the blood, the foundation
of Debian, right? It's there in the Debian Manifesto, right? It's
simple. Ian wanted to get a certain level accomplished before
delegating more out. That level was going to be something like 0.93 -
right after the bugs were fixed and other packages added that were
unavailable for 0.92. This is an attainable, but very cumbersome
goal. Ian wanted 0.92 to be out by the end of the week (just before
Spring Break here at Purdue). With sources. With term. With _all_
networking confirmed good. With TeX. And so on. This is impossible.
The time has come to `outsource' more work to the developers - on top
of the extra packages already being done by volunteers. Your time has
come. Debian needs a boost in productivity.
We need people to get source code for programs, build and debug those
programs, confirm that those programs work on the Debian system, etc.
This includes _all_ sources currently in Debian. It also includes
those other programs that people want/need and are not currently
available. Now, some developers have it a bit easier than others.
Ian already has quite a collection of sources - those he has fixed
already, and those yet to be fixed. So it's not all that bad.
Understandably, we all (developers) need a common base system. By
this, I mean we all need a common platform to build our respective
packages. There is no way 0.91 can serve as this base; Ian has fixed
too many things, added things, deleted things - you get the picture -
in 0.91 for that. (Please do not be too disappointed that your 0.91
system is considered obsolete by these standards; we are still in the
developing stage - not yet public - and, in this case, change means
growth and improvement.) So Debian Linux 0.92 will serve as this
foundation of development. Now, as I stated earlier, 0.92 will not be
out before the weekend. This gives all of you time to really think
about the kind of packages that you are good at, enjoy, despise (but
need), etc. - and are willing to put forth the effort to develop.
With all of that said....
Ian is going to take a _much_ needed and deserved trip far, far away
during Spring Break ... so far away that he may not even answer his
email. He and I will continue to get as much done as we can before
then, but without a doubt 0.92 will not be complete. However, I will
still be here locally to try to put the finishing touches on what is
_necessary_ for the developing foundation I spoke of earlier. Of
course, I will not be alone. I have all of you. :)
Thank you for hanging around during this long letter. But I know you
all understand its emergence. Please, all of you, consider how you
could use your resources and talents to help show the world through
the Debian Linux distribution what a real operating system is.
Mike D.
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| mdickey@thorplus.lib.purdue.edu Hicks Undergraduate Library |
| Purdue University Computer Science Computer Support/Technician |
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