7:15 p.m.
Now that we have a better underlying set of principles, and will possibly end up with a
more mature environment, I wonder if it might be a good idea to invite some projects to be
GNU projects.
In the past my projects became GNU projects because Stallman appreciated the work I did in
early GNU stuff and had written me in 1996 saying:
I'm willing to agree that to call them GNU software,
because I trust that you're doing a good job
and that they will be a credit to the GNU project.
but that idea of "hey, this person who has my ear is doing something, so I'll
bless it" is not OK for our mature GNU project :-)
So I got to thinking about whether some projects that are key infrastructure, and a more
modern version of such, might want to be GNU projects. Some end user ones as well.
I wonder if it might be possible to invite them to be part of the GNU Assembly. Two came
to mind:
At the low-level end of the spectrum are the Meson build system, which makes a good bid at
gently phasing out autotools (I'm beginning to do that phasing myself).
The other is https://lichess.org/ by Thibault Duplessis. For those who do not follow
chess, lichess.org is a huge free software success story, and a real part of what kept the
world going during the lockdown. There is an amazing lecture the author gives on
lichess.org here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZgyVadkgmI
which really shows his single-minded dedication to offering a free (as in freedom and as
in cost) service. Licensing is spelled out in the way we love at:
https://lichess.org/source
10:03 p.m.
Hi,
Mark Galassi <mark(a)galassi.org> skribis:
Now that we have a better underlying set of principles, and will
possibly end up with a more mature environment, I wonder if it might be a good idea to
invite some projects to be GNU projects.
That’s an interesting idea.
We could have licensing and technical criteria and an “evaluation
process” similar to <https://www.gnu.org/help/evaluation.html>;, but
transparent. We would also need to discuss an overall strategy
regarding which projects would make sense to add.
It may be a bit too early since we’re still figuring things out, though!
Ludo’.
10:32 p.m.
Hi Mark,
Now that we have a better underlying set of principles, and will
possibly end up with a more mature environment, I wonder if it
might be a good idea to invite some projects to be GNU projects.
Eventually: yes. But I think right now there’s a little too much
going on for picking up business like that.
I’m sure this will also be seen as divisive. Personally, I think
this is not problematic in itself, but I’d feel a lot better about
it if we waited for some more stability and more of GNU
maintainers and contributors to join us (or decide not to join
us). Making big semi-permanent moves like that so early would
effectively take advantage of this early period of a small
community, which could easily be construed as unfair by those who
would consider joining after observing us for a little while until
the construction dust has settled.
So I’d say: better wait.
--
Ricardo
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2 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
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Ludovic Courtès -
Mark Galassi -
Ricardo Wurmus