Re: Q to all candidates: Debian in five years?
Le 2015-03-14 21:59, Lucas Nussbaum a écrit :
There has been some discussions about the focus moving to other areas
of
Free Software, distributions being solved problems, containers as a
alternative/better way to ship software, etc.
In five years, what should Debian's position and role be in the Free
Software ecosystem?
Are there other positions where we somehow risk ending up?
What can we rely on to get to that ideal position/role?
What are the main things we should worry about (including, but not
limited to recent trends in the Free Software world)?
IMHO, Debian's contribution in the Free Software ecosystem is twofold:
- We make the largest and one of the most used Linux (and sometimes
other
kernels) distribution.
- We care about our users and software freedom. We make a lot of
efforts to make the distinction clear and bold between the two
worlds (free/open and non-free).
I don't expect those two points to change anytime soon. But every year,
those
two points are challenged, and we work hard to keep them current. As
outlined
in the SWOT analysis, we have the opportunity to tackle new subjects or
put
more efforts into those subjects. Those subjects include (but are not
limited
to): cloud services, containers, complexity of software stacks,
security,
privacy. Each one of them is challenging and puts our position back
into play.
On the technical level, I do not expect our role to change but a lot of
changes will happen in the way we play that role. We have a strong
community
but we have to keep recruiting new skilled people as software become
more
and more complex and us facing new challenges. Well, we talk so much
about
on-boarding new people but we may forget the awesome people that build
Debian
today. We should keep those too... They may be useful :-P
On a social level, we see more people concerned by the diversity in our
communities (and other free software communities in a more general
way).
Debian played a role there since years and I expect us to continue
doing
so and even more by caring about other minorities.
We will also continue to play an educational role to re-explain what is
the
free software philosophy and why it is relevant today (more than ever).
--
Mehdi
Reply to: