Debian: Practicalities and the big picture
Apart from having possible ideological repercussions, the recent “editorial” amendment to the Debian Social Contract might also push back Debian’s next major release (sarge).
This post from Joey Schulze summarizes the events leading up to the amendment. Excerpt:
Recently the Debian project has passed a general resolution on editorial amendments to the social contract. For this a 3:1 majority was required. After the resolution passed, and after a resolution to split out non-free from Debian servers failed, some people are stunned by the result and can’t believe what they just did. After all, Debian accepted changes to its social contract which many people did not believe could ever happen.
Also, this thread in Debian Planet might provide some explanations about this issue with potentially major implications for Debian. Although I might be branded as an old-timer by some, here’s my comment reproduced from said thread:
I completely agree with Laurence here; I’ve been in the carefree and precarious position for the last 3 years of being able to run my production servers in sid, specifically so I could sidestep the agony of having to wait for an up-to-date stable distribution; they proved quite stable too, with frequent micromanagement. However, this is a luxury I cannot afford anymore: I must migrate to a stable production environment and leave periodic server upgrades to others so I can carry out my real work.
I asked Martin Michlmayr to comment on this issue today, at an Open Source/Free Software Conference in Greece; he expressed misgivings about the amendment itself but added that Debian tries to take the big picture into account, in this and other issues. I am all for this, but I think the big picture includes practical concerns to a large degree and right now, Slashdot article or not, Debian needs sarge and a usable installer soon to remain a valid option for production use in itself (that is, not just in the guise of derivative distros). I’m not in a position to evaluate the effects this amendment will have on sarge, but if they seem to be grave, please consider effecting it after sarge is released.
No offense to anyone involved is intended, but this whole affair brings to mind an old Greek proverb: “people should be careful where they put their signatures and their [insert male reproductive organ slang term]“. On the other hand, it’s kind of reminiscent of [insert country of origin] politics..
More thoughts on this and other related issues as I try to digest the huge information bundle harvested at the recent 2nd Hellenic OSS/FS convention.
