Fedora considers "privacy-preserving" telemetry
Fedora considers "privacy-preserving" telemetry
Posted Jul 9, 2023 14:52 UTC (Sun) by jzb (editor, #7867)In reply to: Fedora considers "privacy-preserving" telemetry by mikebenden
Parent article: Fedora considers "privacy-preserving" telemetry
The armchair quarterback analogy is somewhat apt here. Producing an open source project can be a spectator sport if you're content to watch and accept what comes out of it. Otherwise, suit up and play or coach, or carry water buckets, whatever, if you want a voice. If you want ultimate control, buy a team. Of course buying a team is out of reach for most people, but so is providing all the infrastructure and people time to produce Fedora.
I could go on at length with this analogy, but suffice to say that Fedora is ultimately at the intersection of commercial and community interests and is always going to be driven in part by changing commercial requirements.
Like choosing to follow a pro sports team, there's always going to be the possibility that the owners or players will do something to disappoint you - and I don't just mean losing games or championships. I say this as someone who is originally from near St. Louis, which has lost not just one but *two* professional NFL teams to other cities in my lifetime. One hopes St. Louis has learned its lesson by now.
We are where we are with the state of open source today because the vast majority of people have been content to sit on the sidelines and hope that shouting at the owners, coaches, and players would be sufficient to influence things forever.
As you say, how long can "the community" get away with that? If you're a Cardinals or Rams football fan, only so long as you don't care what city they're playing in. If you're a vendor-sponsored project user, only so long as there's not a huge disconnect between the vendor's needs and your wants.
Posted Jul 9, 2023 15:56 UTC (Sun)
by mikebenden (guest, #74702)
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Not looking for sympathy, but thanks anyway :)
> The armchair quarterback analogy is somewhat apt here. Producing an open source project can be a spectator sport if you're content to watch and accept what comes out of it.
Well, maintaining Fedora for people in my care, and maintaining Fedora RPM packages for software I (and those people) care about is, IMHO, dead-center in the "community member" territory. Not part of the "intelligentsia", like what *you* may be used to.
> content to sit on the sidelines and hope that shouting at the owners, coaches, and players would be sufficient to influence things forever.
I think (re. OP's suggestion he might switch away from fedora, which propmpted the whole "moaner" thing I then felt compelled to reply to) it's useful for us "peasants" to make our voices heard. The "high rollers" will do what they will do, and we will vote with our feet. I'd rather not have to, but I'm perfectly qualified to do so (with great deals of annoyance and unnecessary extra work, but qualified and able to nonetheless).
Your thing about buying a team or learning to play NFL-class football as an alternative to yelling at the owners and players from the sidelines does read a lot like "try eating cake when the bread runs out", whether you intended it that way or not.
I'll stop here, since I already said what I had to say, and see no further point in having an actual *argument* :) Cheers!
Fedora considers "privacy-preserving" telemetry