Slightly OT: bad rap for Fedora, and realistic effects

[Arthur Pemberton]

On 2/22/07, Jeff Spaleta <jspaleta at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2/22/07, Arthur Pemberton <pemboa at gmail.com> wrote:
> > And this may or may not be the correct -list for this, but here goes.
> > I think its fair to say that a lot of the louder voices on the
> > internet do not like Fedora for fair and unfair reasons. My question
> > is what does this do to Fedora, and RedHat by association. I can't
> > imagine that anything good is coming of this. All the developers here
> > are bound by the 24hr daily limit, ie. there is a finite amount of
> > work that any developer can accomplish, esp. those not being paid to
> > work on Fedora. Making the assumption that all these negative word of
> > mouth is bleeding Fedora of contributors, then what's the plan?
>
> First I'd stop making unfounded assumptions about how the contributor
> numbers are falling.
> There's no real evidence of that at all. We we saw this week was
> another chapter of the lack of contribution from the same person, a
> person with a long standing personal agenda which is at odds with the
> policies of this project, and someone who consistently speaks based on
> information which appears to be based on the a view of the fedora
> project which is 6 months to a year out of date. At the end of the
> day, this was not a suddenly new development, and it was not the loss
> of an active contributor.  What we have been seeing this week is a
> skilled politician using what have become very standard tricks of the
> trade.  Its messy and its ugly, but anyone whose lived through the
> last decade of US national political cycles should recognize it for
> what it is.  To re-use a phrase, Fedora's been swift-boated. It's
> really unfortunate that such political skill has been squandered for
> such a petty purpose.  I fear for the health of the freespire project
> if a board member of that project needs to publicly attack a competing
> project via personal letters directly to the press.
>
> But unlike politicians, we aren't gearing up for an election day.
> There is no drop-dead date
> by which we need to convince a majority of contributors to work with
> us for X number of years.  That's sort of the great thing about...
> community. We don't need to strong arm, or twist the truth, or talk
> smack about competing ideas. Fedora does not need to win a decisive
> victory at the expense of other community projects. Fedora can
> continue to build an active community and continue to make the long
> term impact that it needs to make and fulfill its stated mission. All
> we need to do is do our best is to be upfront about what this project
> is, what its goals are, and to be as encompassing and supportive of as
> many people's individual itches inside that framework.
>
> If we wanted to run a counter political campaign, then I would very
> much suggest everyone who is interested, write Max Spevack with a
> short personal testimony with your positive personal pov as to what
> you get out of being a contributor to Fedora. What you feel is
> important about Fedora that makes it worth the time.  Because that's
> what matters. its not the number of contributors, or size of the
> codebase, or the size of the userbase. What matters when choosing to
> be a volunteer for any organization or project is knowing that by
> contributing your time and your talents you are personally growing
> from the experience and that your efforts are making a difference.
> I'm sure Max won't mind compiling selected testimonials into a PR
> piece to counter-balance any further poltical manipulation of the
> laypress.
>
> If we don't attract people who are looking for personal control,
> instead of personal growth.. that is a perfectly acceptable outcome to
> me. We don't need to attract everybody, niether as a user nor as a
> contributor. We need to do our best to attract the people who would
> work well inside the scope of the project... and at the same time help
> others find projects which fit best for them. Fedora should be the
> linux distribution like Progressive is to car insurance. If we aren't
> the best choice for you, we'll help you find the distribution that is.
>  For some outspoken media-savvy people, a position on the freespire
> board may very well be the project that fits them best. It's just
> unfortunate that it took that person as long as it did to figure that
> out. If I regret anything with regard to how this project has treated
> said individual, it is that we didn't try hard enough earlier on to
> help him find linspire sooner.
>
> Does this project has problems to solve? Absolutely, but the important
> ones the Fedora needs to focus on right now have nothing to do with
> the screed we saw in the press this week.  But every single important
> problem that this project faces is the result of growth, and growing
> pains can hurt like hell some times.
>
> -jef"Fedora's growing up, soon there will be hair growing on it in
> some very sensitive places"spaleta
>
> --

Okay, I see your point, and I believe that I understand it.

Somewhat along those lines, is there an official list of awknowledged
problems in Fedora? I seem to rarely run into most of these issues
myself, so when I hear of supposedly large problems in Fedora, it
takes me a bit of guard and I become curious as to their factual
worth.

-- 
Fedora Core 6 and proud