Ron,
+1 to your main point about raising the bar everywhere, starting from
our own behavior in the Debian project.
On Sat, Sep 06, 2014 at 05:36:15AM +0930, Ron wrote:
> but clever people don't stick around where they aren't respected, so
> anyone who has managed to attract that many clever people to
> collaborate with them, for this long, in ever growing numbers, clearly
> can't be the sort of bastard to everyone, all the time, that this
> picture seems to paint.
About this, however, it strikes me as a bit too simplistic. In
particular, it doesn't take into account that 1) a significant majority
of Linux kernel contributions happen on a paycheck, and 2) Linux is de
facto the only place to go for people who want to work on an industry
grade FOSS kernel. So certainly, in the mind of "clever people", that
might warrant withstanding insults (which are certainly not the *norm*
on LKML, but do happen and are tolerated) that one wouldn't withstand if
the balance of power were a little different?
The thing is: Linus simply doesn't have the problem that most FOSS
projects have, i.e., that of attracting and retaining volunteer
contributors in order to survive (we know a thing or two about lack of
manpower in Debian, don't we?). Linus' views of how participants
could/should behave in FOSS projects stem from that, in my opinion quite
narrow, point of view.
The problem is that, given the stature of the leader-by-example, Linus'
behavior is invariably at risk of being taken as example by participants
in *other* FOSS projects, even for projects that cannot afford the
luxury that the Linux kernel has. Net result: "collateral damages" for
all of them (i.e., us).
That is enough of a reason for not giving the man a Debian podium from
which advertising, unchallenged, views which are not shared by the
Debian Project --- and that they are not shared has, I think, been
proven by several GRs over the last few years. That doesn't mean
marking Linus as persona non grata, it means being clever on the event
format. For instance, instead of a Q&A session I would have loved to see
a *panel* between Linus and another non-Debian person that holds
opposite views than his on both Free Software and welcoming communities.
(I've various names in minds, in case someone wants to try to organize
something like this in the future.)
Cheers.
--
Stefano Zacchiroli . . . . . . . zack@xxxxxxxxxx . . . . o . . . o . o
Maître de conférences . . . . . http://upsilon.cc/zack . . . o . . . o o
Former Debian Project Leader . . @zack on identi.ca . . o o o . . . o .
« the first rule of tautology club is the first rule of tautology club »
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