Draft resolution formalising Debian's Associated Project status

[Joshua D. Drake]

Josip Rodin wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 11, 2007 at 02:20:41PM -0700, Joshua D. Drake wrote:
>>> I really don't think that MJ and Ian realize how opaque and chaotic Debian 
>>> politics are to outsiders.
>> I would second that. When I researched the OpenSource.Org domain issue, 
>> I was stunned at how convoluted and emotional everything was. Debian has 
>> really appears to have grown (at least from an outsider view) into a 
>> very political self spinning organization.
> 
> I'd like to respond to that, but I really don't understand what you mean by
> 'political self spinning organization'? A political organization that
> spins on its own? WTF? :)

Perpetual motion, never stops, never moves forward.

> 
> Regarding Debian vs. OSI in general, it's an inevitably strange relationship
> because of the simple fact that a closed organization forked a foundation
> document of an open project. Like in that other thread - we don't like to
> leave things as a matter of faith, let alone to a closed group. Sure, it's
> reasonably easy to believe that OSI will do no harm, but us technical types
> aren't inclined to like such uncertainty.
> 
> Which is amusing - this apparently became "opaque and chaotic" as described
> above, and that's the very thing that we would like to have avoided...

Well I certainly don't want to start up the discussion again. I was just 
making a point about a particular incident that I saw.

The most gentle way that I could put it, is:

As an outsider, it appears that Debian is more interested in policy than 
actually achieving goals. This in turn reminds many of how governments 
work. Very slow, very unproductive, but they eventually get things done.

Whether this is true or not, I really don't know. I don't follow Debian 
except to how it relates with Ubuntu of which I am a big fan. I do not 
have harbor any real thoughts on the matter beyond what I mention above 
because I am not involved beyond with Debian beyond the relationship 
with SPI.

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake