Women in Technology

Article:		Confessions of a Recovering NetBSD Zealot
Subject:		Please Fork.
Date:		2006-09-16 13:55:40
From:		hubertf
Response to: Please Fork.
Yeah, right: <br/> Do you know what you're asking for? Forking means maintaining the whole codebase on your own, even if you pull in most/all technical changes from NetBSD. You'll still have to maintain competence across all areas of your operating systems, inside the kernel and outside. You will have to answer lots of questions, will have to provide lots of documentation and so on. <br/> From my PoV there's not enough spare manpower out there to waste it in such a pointless event. <br/> Instead, I'm inviting everyone interested in changing NetBSD to contribute, which makes the most change without introducing redundancy. <br/> - Hubert (not wearing any NetBSD hat, just wielding my stick of common sense :)

Showing messages 1 through 2 of 2.

• Please Fork.
  2006-09-16 17:43:29  kothog [View]
  
  
  No it doesn't: that only happens when you have enough divergence that incoming merges from the original OS begin to conflict with your own.
  
  Therefore, you only really need competence in the subsystems that you modify directly. If you don't have enough competence to do that, then sure, probably best to stay away.
  
  However, you can't say that modifications to single routines requires global competence. They don't. And who needs to answer questions? Use a simple excuse: I apologise, but I'm too busy working on the OS to answer your questions right now. -- And then restrict your communications to those who can directly and competently assist you.
  
  Modern SCM makes incoming merging trivial. Heck, most tools will automerge for you no problem.
  
  A fork would be simple for someone like Charles, especially if there's truth behind his rants about code purity. If he's right about all the support people have privately given him, then he'll accrete the additional developers and resources he needs as time goes on. If he was wrong, then everyone who's currently using NetBSD will continue to use NetBSD and his fork will die an early death.
  
  Given his rants, there is no other alternative that doesn't require lawyers and money. I'm just saying: Do it already and see what happens.
  

• Please Fork.
  2006-09-16 15:23:12  for4eva [View]
  
  
  Better yet, not contribute to a project run by a bunch of incompetents and instead contribute to OpenBSD since it's the closest thing to NetBSD and isn't run by a bunch of bureaucratic wingnuts - if everyone just ignores NetBSD and moves on to something else, the problem goes away.