Re: Discussing issues

[Havoc Pennington <hp@redhat.com>]

On Tue, Apr 15, 2003 at 01:25:34PM +0200, Egbert Eich wrote: 
> There seems to be a misunderstanding:
> Havoc, you are talking about a project that deals a future
> 'base GUI platform for X11/UNIX' with library components
> GUI projects want to rely on. While Mark is referring to
> the realms that have traditionally been the focus of XFree86.

I'm not _only_ talking about libraries, there are also server-side
elements.

But can you explain "traditional focus of XFree86"?  Does XFree86 not
want to work on the protocol/library/extension/API layers?  What about
dix/mi and the non-driver portions of the server?

> I don't think anyone would argue that GUI projects should
> have a say on the library base they are going to use in the 
> future.
> However this 'community governance' when implemented in the
> way proposed would take away control over things people have
> been working on for years from these and turn it over to a 
> group that controls a much larger project than XFree86 
> currently is.

Wait, though. Even if XFree86 does include libraries and protocol
extensions, I don't think GUI projects should have a "say" in terms of
some kind of authority. It'd be smart if someone checked that the GUI
projects will use the features vs. ignoring them, but ultimately
individuals who *contribute* to the libraries and protocol extensions
should have the say.

All these other projects we're talking about are confederations of
little module dictatorships. Someone owns the foo subsystem, someone
owns the blah subsystem. If I write and maintain
libstartup-notification (random lame example), I get final say over
changes to it.
 
That works because 99% of decisions are not shared decisions.  The
only time you have to get all the dictators to agree is for a shared
decision, such as a release freeze process. Splitting
responsibility/authority in this way is what makes the organization
scalable.

> It has not been until yesterday that the entire scope of
> this idea was revealed. Had it been done three or four
> weeks ago we may be much closer to a solution now.

OK, I'm glad it's clear now at least. Thanks for clearing it up.

Havoc

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