Re: GR: Selecting the default init system for Debian

[Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>]

Holger Levsen writes ("Re: GR: Selecting the default init system for Debian"):
> care to explain why you think so?

Russ has given an answer which I agree with.

But more fundamentally for me: if the project as a whole votes to
overrule the TC on this question, but by a constitutionally
insufficient margin, then I worry that the TC's decision would lack
political legitimacy within the project.

That would risk a lack of wholehearted cooperation from the project as
a whole, erode the authority of the TC, and invite further discussion
of the subject.

> I do think its a useful requirement to avoid $adjective GRs like
> this one (or at least make them harder).

In practice I think that the developers as a whole are mature enough
to take that into consideration in the way they vote.


Bdale asked me in private email why I had changed my mind on this
point since I drafted that part of the constitution.  Here's what I
said:

  I'm not sure whether I would agree that the 2:1 supermajority is
  always wrong.  Russ's scenario seems a good [example of a problem
  with it] to me, so perhaps I'm older and wiser.  To be honest when
  the constitution was being discussed I don't remember anyone
  considering this point.

  But in this particular case the situation seems especially difficult.
  It's certainly clear that the whole thing is very politically charged.

Ian.