FreeBSD Core Developer Thrown Out 681
SlashChick writes "From a discussion on the freebsd-chat mailing list, it appears that one of the FreeBSD core developers, Matt Dillon, has been barred from committing any changes to the FreeBSD kernel. Dillon was one of the developers 'responsible for making FreeBSD 4.x the most rugged and stress-proof free operating system in existence,' and also contributed to fixing the Linux VM. Unfortunately, there has been little explanation from the FreeBSD core team about why Dillon was thrown out, leading to speculation and worries about the future of the FreeBSD kernel. Does the Slashdot community have any more insight into this situation? Would someone from the FreeBSD team care to elaborate and assuage our worries?" CD Update: Greg Lehey from the core team has infact elaborated in this comment.
TdR (Score:1, Interesting)
Similar to the Net/OpenBSD split (Score:5, Interesting)
Oddly enough, it was a very similar event that led to the creation of the OpenBSD project. Theo started it after a (rather extended, IIRC) tiff with the rest of the NetBSD core team.
If Matt decides to fork the code and start his own project, I think the technical world would be a better place for it. A fifth open source BSD might seem excessive to some, but there are still many ways for such a project to differentiate itself.
Re:Matt Dillon? (Score:3, Interesting)
Perhaps Hedy Lamarr [hp.com]?
Re:FUD (Score:4, Interesting)
No, actually it's indicative of elitism. It separates the haves from the have nots in the worst way possible. "You're not a member of the core team, you can't commit" as opposed to the way it's done in Linux, where the lines are well-defined but not labeled.
Any projects needs leadership, but even avoiding dumb lofty titles and meaningless labels go a long way towards improving what is, in the end, a communist-type dictatorship that runs largely on good will (and I make no judgement regarding that, that's just what it is).
It's a bad day for open source really... (Score:0, Interesting)
After all the "open source is for everyone" spouts, someone goes and gets banned from a project... weird...
(and yeah, I am a sufferer)
Re:Little explanation? I think there's enough. (Score:5, Interesting)
Matt Dillon From The Amiga Days? (Score:2, Interesting)
His stuff filled many a directory back in days before my newsreader started logging into a server instead of pointing to a spool directory.
Same thing happened at NetBSD (Score:5, Interesting)
There's a long discussion in Peter Wayner's Free for All [wayner.org], a book that's now free as in beer.
Re:Little explanation? I think there's enough. (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course that's the whole BSD movement, 2 developers get their panties in a bunch and instead of either one of them being big enough to compromise they fork. You can't tell me that the OpenBSD folks aren't doing things that all BSDs benefit from, same for FreeBSD and their amazing accomplishments. FreeBSD has been strong so far but it's sad to see them drop to that same level.
To quote Mike Smith's goodbye letter... (Score:4, Interesting)
"To the grandstanders, the prima donnas, and anyone that thinks that they can hold the project to ransom for their own agenda - give it a break, if you can. When the current core were elected, we took a conscious stand against vigorous sanctions, and some of you have exploited that. A new core is going to have to decide whether to repeat this mistake or get tough. I hope they learn from our errors."
Perhaps the core "got tough" and "learned from
their errors" on this one. That's probably what's
going to come out in the wash.
Re:dillon leaves the FreeBSD project (Score:3, Interesting)
Um, then what the hell was the point of this whole article?
Oh and I see the FreeBSD team has their hands tied behind their backs. Freedom counts folks...
Re:Free BSD (not) Dying (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:dillon leaves the FreeBSD project (Score:4, Interesting)
So whatever the original poster's idea behind this was, I have no idea about.
Freedom counts, yes, just not at the expense of someone's person. Learn some social skills and think for a change more along the lines of: what if I were in that position, would I like to have the nitty-gritty about my/their behaviour displayed in full? (There are times when you definately _are_ wrong about what you've done, you know.)
Hmm... (Score:3, Interesting)
Fact: The best programmers typically have a low tolerance for idiocy, and if you want the best programmers on your team, listening is a better solution than firing them. Poor social skills? Probably. Gets a helluva lot of productivity out of these people? You betcha.
-E