The Future of The Gentoo Foundation?
Over the past few days, I discovered that the Gentoo Foundation's charter is in the process of being revoked by the state of New Mexico, apparently due to regular paperwork not being filed by the trustees. What this means is that the Gentoo Foundation is currently hanging for its life by a string, and at any day could cease to exist as an entity. That is the very bad news.
The good news is that I was able to talk to Grant Goodyear (trustee) this morning on the phone, and I have confirmed that Grant had received my email about the revocation issue that I sent 2 days ago and that he will be resolving this critical issue in the next couple of days by filing the appropriate paperwork with the state of New Mexico, and this paperwork will also remove me as President of the Foundation. I offered to serve as registered agent of the Foundation temporarily until a suitable replacement can be found. Grant said that I should give him a couple of days to get this fixed.
Grant also explained in more detail his efforts to complete the process of eventually transitioning to the Software Freedom Conservancy, and dissolving the existing Foundation. The SFC is essentially a 501(c)(3) that will handle financial, legal and administrative tasks for the Gentoo project. The estimated time of completion for this transition is 60-90 days. It is currently being held up by some members of the SFC being on vacation and the need for more extensive review by the trustees.
I am still upset that the Foundation has not been run properly over the last three years, and that many trustees apparently decided to take extended vacations from the project shortly after becoming a trustee, leaving the work to be done by very few - and often a single individual, which defeats the whole purpose of having multiple trustees to do the work rather than a single leader. I am also, like many of you, not happy at all with the way Gentoo has been going from a development and community perspective.
However, I can't argue that the SFC provides a very compelling solution for the Foundation's current woes.
Some people I've spoken to consider the SFC to be a cop-out - that a lot more could have been accomplished if more people had taken their role as trustee seriously. I actually agree, but this did not happen, and many opportunities were missed. As it stands today, this appears to be the best option for Gentoo as a not-for-profit organization. Honestly, it is a wonderful gift being offered to Gentoo on behalf of the SFC.
So at this point, there is a path forward both immediate, critical issues and longer-term issues relating to Gentoo's not-for-profit structure. Still, this does not address any problems with Gentoo related to its development structure and team and community efforts. I am concerned that the "Gentoo" organization caters and accommodates often cantankerous developers rather than its users, and that critical Gentoo projects like Sabayon Linux are treated as second-class members of the community. It also does not address the leadership vacuum. But progress has been made.
18 comments:
The move to have the function of the Foundation done by another group which is qualified and has the resources to do so is a good one.
This still leaves the issue of the leadership vacuum at Gentoo to be addressed. I would propose a structure where one or a small few folks are at the top of Gentoo. Below them would be a "inner sanctum" group of lead devs responsible for various areas of the Gentoo project and chosen for their leadership and management skills as well as their technical abilities. Below them would be lead devs and teams responsible for the individual projects. Having fewer people in charge with a layered structure could eliminate alot of the problems currently plaguing Gentoo.
From the outside, one thing that has to happen is for the devs on this project to get over themselves and become familiar with the fine art of diplomacy. The amount of talent that Gentoo's devs have is truly amazing. The lack of social skills and lack of respect they display towards each other completely overshadows their contributions in some cases.
If Gentoo is to survive, the devs must start to be known for their technical expertise rather than how cleverly (or not) they can insult each other in public forums.
I don't see what Sabayon has to do with all this. Sabayon has nothing to do with Gentoo As analogy; you can't expect Mandriva to support PCLinuxOS.
Furhermore I find the tone of the article overly negative. The way I see it Gentoo is doing very well. Gentoo package updates are released like clockwork. Devs respond quickly and adequately to bugreport. The community is very alive and well.
Daniel, I think you have done a
marvelous thing by creating the best Linux (meta-)distro available.However you have had three chances to put your words of criticism into action and you have refused (or quit). Therefor I find that you should be last guy to continue to criticize Gentoo.
My advice; focus on your new company. Let Gentoo go. That would best for all.
clockwork?
so, stable releases are a product of clockwork? cause they are almost always out of schedule...
In some herds one or two people get all the work done and when they resign just then all the others start whining for recruits... (wb flameeyes)
this may sound sillly,
but leadership is something that requires more then peoples want to lead. love of leadership is a problem in any political system and opensource is nothing but politics.
gentoo, should approach ubuntu, who are trying very hard to distance themselves from debian any chance they get - to said in manegment. sounds like a bold move, but such times call for such mesaures.
like clockwork???
huahuahuahua
When GNome 2.18 will be STABLE?
the bug for stabilization already open.. but NO CHANGES (this is ridiculus).
I'm a big fun of Gentoo by DRobbins..
Perfect Mahir
"...but leadership is something that requires more then peoples want to lead...."
Daniel Neto
It would be good if Gentoo let an outside group manage the legal and financial side of things, but perhaps the last comment was good as well.
GNOME 2.18.2 going stable
The Gentoo GNOME team is working towards stabilization of GNOME 2.18.2 in the tree. This will be an upgrade from the current stable GNOME 2.16 release. You can find out more about the changes in this major GNOME upgrade on the GNOME 2.18 page. Please consult the GNOME 2.18 Upgrade Guide before upgrading. If you wish to track the stabilization efforts, you can follow bug #185823.
http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/20070716-newsletter.xml
Whatever the people say about daniel robbins, I think he should come back and have a role as one of the main leaders of the project. It would benefit gentoo linux. It was very misfortune that things escalated lately when he joined the dev team, thus making him leave shortly after that. I wished he would try a second approach. Maybe things work better this time.
Hi,
the lack of leader ship is still quite evident at Gentoo. Ubuntu has Mark Shuttleworth, Gentoo has Daniel Robbins. I can't see any other person associated with Gentoo that much, although I'm fully confident there are hard working and excellent tech engineers and other people working on the project. Democracy is nice but can produce mediocre results because nobody agree on anything.
Personally I still do not get why you are not doing Gentoo anymore.
For my two cents on Gentoo future see my blog.
That's good news. I'm sorry you have had to babysit this project which you obviously worked so hard to leave in good hands.
Yeah. Ubuntu has Mark Shuttleworth and Gentoo has Daniel Robbins. I actually agree on the fact that running a project without a proper leader is inefficient. Leadership is not dictatorship, its all about federating people and taking decisions. Gentoo misses badly a leader.
And for the "bad" devs, ban them if needed. But again, a leader would be able to take this kind of decision. A leader and a collegium, that what Gentoo needs if it wants to keep up with the other distros.
I also agree with Daniel about Sabayon Linux. It's a fantastic showcase for Gentoo and should actually be leveraged to gain market share.
I am so impressed with Sabayon, and I had no idea that it existed until recently. I'll definitely be using that instead of vanilla Gentoo from now on.
I mean, Gnome 2.18 not stable? KDE 3.5.6 not stable? Give me a break.
Gentoo is going the way of Debian, outclassed by its own children.
The foundation as the legal and tax entity, and the organization of the development team are different things.
Daniel, I run a couple largish open source projects and contribute to others. If you want to be involved in Gentoo, perhaps it makes sense to be involved as a contributor and a voice of reason, as time allows. Leadership evolves out of multiple avenues, it doesn't need to be granted as a dictator, benevolent or otherwise. It also doesn't need to be based on full agreement.
In my experience, communities mature and become more civil if there are a few voices in the development community calling for civility or consensus.
Of course your family and career deserve your time, but Gentoo could use as much of your time as you can spare as well... if only as one of those voices of civility to help it mature.
Sabayon Linux has everything to do with Gentoo.
What if Debian had treated its derivatives as second-class members of the community? Do you believe it would still be the successful Debian we all know?
Brian you're right.
But civilization haves centuries to develop civility.
Gentoo Project can't wait. Gentoo Project need a LEADER NOW!!!!
let's start a petition online..
heheheheh
It is my understanding that the current foundation is a 501(c)(1) Entity. Will a transition to the 501(c)(3) Entity, SFC, allow for donations to Gentoo with the 501(c)(3) tax benefits? Will a donation make it to Gentoo, or is it at risk of being used up with SFC administrative overhead or possibly even going to another member project?
According to what Grant told me, you can earmark a donation specifically for the Gentoo Foundation.
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