----- Original Message -----
From: "Marty" <martyb@ix.netcom.com>
It seems like free software employment and market share come with
increasing risk to objectivity and technical quality. It's my main
concern as a Debian user, as I consider recent trends.
I hope that Debian members consider an amendment to restrict voting
rights for members who have a financial interest in Debian or in any
project used by Debian, to promote and protect the public interest.
Conflicts of interest are not just financial. Even an unpaid developer should probably not be voting as a technical committee member on whether to make his project the Debian default. He could vote for his project because of the glory that comes with being the Debian default. Or maybe he truly believes it is the best. But he knows his project better than any of the alternatives. He is invested in it. He should be the expert petitioning the decision-makers, but he should not be one of the decision-makers.
I really think this concept is obvious and was really surprised that Debian allowed a vote for default init system to occur in a technical committee whose members have vested interests in one init system or another.
Avoiding perceived conflict of interest is just as important as avoiding actual conflict of interest, because it undermines confidence in the leadership. Most conflict-of-interest regulations that I know of (USA-based) reflect this. (But let's not start citing examples of government officials who have violated these principles -- we all know there are plenty).
Anyway, regardless of how impartial the tech committee members are believed to be, the upstart guys and the systemd guys probably should not have participated in the vote for default init system.