Not a cathedral, not a bazaar [LWN.net]

Not a cathedral, not a bazaar

Posted Mar 8, 2013 15:05 UTC (Fri) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091)
In reply to: Thanks for making my argument by nix
Parent article: Canonical reveals plans to launch Mir display server (The H)

You are right (and I should know since I have been a voluntary Savannah admin for a few years). When handling code it is still not as agile as other environments, but it is certainly not centralized. The decision process however remains largely in the hands of a couple of people, and there have been some complaints about it recently.

Let us see a practical example: inclusion in the project.The GNU project says about it:

Based on the evaluators' report, Richard Stallman (the Chief GNUisance) makes the final decision on whether to accept the contribution. [...] Thus, becoming a GNU maintainer is a somewhat formal process, since affiliating with the GNU project as a maintainer means you must agree to work (within the confines of the maintenance) with the GNU project's mission for software freedom.

Contrast with inclusion in other software collections:

Debian: have a Debian Developer sponsor your package.
CPAN: register, wait two weeks and upload your package.
The PyPI: register and upload.
NPM: npm publish.

The GNU project may not be a cathedral of software, but it is not exactly a bazaar just yet... and probably it never will given its goals.

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