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Date:      Fri, 7 Feb 2003 02:40:29 +0100
From:      Stefan Arentz <stefan.arentz@soze.com>
To:        freebsd-java@freebsd.org, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org
Cc:        jdp@polstra.com
Message-ID:  <237589D0-3A3D-11D7-8CCD-000A95678CE8@soze.com>

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On Thu, Feb 06, 2003 at 11:24:33AM +0800, leafy wrote:
 > John, this looks nasty, I mean on your part. I think what Bill 
demanded was
 > resonable -- just an explaination or some respect for his hard work.

I totally agree. Bill has done an amazing amount of hacking and that is 
the main reason why this 1.4.1 port exists today. It is the reason why 
the Foundation could hire just one person; all the hard work had 
already been done. Where is the recognition of that fact.

Could other people have done it? Sure, but Bill was the one who devoted 
a *large* portion of his time in 2002 to get this done. That is why I 
don't buy the "hey this is a volunteer project" argument that someone 
else posted, in the end it *is* all about the volunteers who make it 
possible. Don't use it as an excuse to treat people like shit.

Also, John Polstra's comment about 'there are easily a hundred people 
who done this work' shows a complete lack of understanding how 
difficult this project is. It involves a large amount of compiler, 
interpreter and kernel discipline which, combined, cannot be found in a 
lot of engineers. Bill knows this stuff. This is most definitely not 
your typical port with some #ifdefs and a recompile. He does not even 
acknowledge the fact that Bill did most of the hard work.

I too was amazed not to find the proper credits to Bill's work. Not in 
a release note or even a list of contributors. Actually what Greg Lewis 
wrote was:

  'Again, I would like to thank Alexey Zelkin who has single handedly 
been
   working on the 1.4 port. I'd also like to thank the FreeBSD Foundation
   who have provided the funding to allow Alexey to continue his work.'

This is insulting. Alexey is of course doing great work but not 'single 
handedly'. He builds on Bill's work. Was that suddenly forgotten?

Where is the recognition for the real hacker behind this release? The 
person who funded himself without any outside help financially. The 
person who worked many many hours on this project to make FreeBSD a 
better platform?

I'm pretty sure that Bill couldn't care less about the money or the 
job. It is the complete lack of credits and respect that he deserves 
for doing this work that pissed him off. Wouldn't you be?

Sometimes it is very difficult to see who does what in such a large 
project as FreeBSD, but the people involved here should known better in 
this case. This is all about proper recognition and keeping people 
motivated.

It scares me that the FreeBSD foundation made this mistake and silently 
tries to deny it. Forget about Bill's direct approach in his response. 
He has every right to be pissed imo, and that doesn't invalidate all 
energy that he put in this project.

The Foundation owes him an apology.

Greetings,

  Stefan


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