From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Apr 1 16:55:45 2015 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher AECDH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 13E93B09 for ; Wed, 1 Apr 2015 16:55:45 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-wg0-x22b.google.com (mail-wg0-x22b.google.com [IPv6:2a00:1450:400c:c00::22b]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 (128/128 bits)) (Client CN "smtp.gmail.com", Issuer "Google Internet Authority G2" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id A8FF29CA for ; Wed, 1 Apr 2015 16:55:44 +0000 (UTC) Received: by wgoe14 with SMTP id e14so59846284wgo.0 for ; Wed, 01 Apr 2015 09:55:43 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=eitanadler.com; s=0xdeadbeef; h=mime-version:from:date:message-id:subject:to:content-type; bh=jeqlEaXgQK/+CDz9vTihV3g2UoyERvuwN1OM6HnIa4Y=; b=TkaBcxteT+CbaYBZReqBzqYp1uxtkn2URMFN2cu4DmCrjwHFvus6fUr3nBeGQtbn4N 7NaBJInB8GPDacvs7w+oSzDZ05IlYyi6evpSa5sTq3mKm/zNIF8pDHKu8F82PI/bNCPc 0MyhCTn+YmWQ5+j/JPEsVDppnONS9Wr1is9Mo= X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20130820; h=x-gm-message-state:mime-version:from:date:message-id:subject:to :content-type; bh=jeqlEaXgQK/+CDz9vTihV3g2UoyERvuwN1OM6HnIa4Y=; b=bHIyn3rYKU70lupH+RFNf8vPX2pV8X9BPg249m8ORBV1vTuFvcJJeUge5Sb5/ElGBa gJcIzTbOI30JlJ9PNl20OZ6uGhROqTXWUhgsPycKvGj6T8TN9MBYsoZf7TJjTwwnsdJ9 XwFefLX64hCFN7/ZKBft8vUEJ9Yg40g813bT2r9bH7fMFRf4nlcW8z7lRUpBArh7bnl8 PHwt23xETmss9rlHDImCW67mO+alp9xcuspt7N/MHSTlvzjWIPJ62fM7BTw2RBQIRXa9 QKPDC+our+DMczApgU+g94Ttt6T8ox4tiK3eh0mzdcp7P52ehjkPnsF6RC6PS6lziOr2 7HSg== X-Gm-Message-State: ALoCoQmx919KCnXfuSxRIuCYGvj8C37Y4hzlBtuQx0nEi1M6N3Aup+JE/VlkbGHNmXpUwR9L0KEs X-Received: by 10.180.77.40 with SMTP id p8mr16616050wiw.1.1427907343117; Wed, 01 Apr 2015 09:55:43 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.28.211.135 with HTTP; Wed, 1 Apr 2015 09:55:11 -0700 (PDT) From: Eitan Adler Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2015 09:55:11 -0700 Message-ID: Subject: Bazaaring the cathedral (Lowering the Barrier to Entry) To: FreeBSD Hackers , freebsd-current Current Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18-1 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 01 Apr 2015 16:55:45 -0000 Hi all, FreeBSD today has a significant problem of attracting new developers. The lack of new developers manifests itself in a dearth of driver support, inadequate documentation, and trailing third party packages. One of the key reasons for the lack of people is the high barrier of entry to joining the FreeBSD project. While every modern project uses git (usually hosted on github), FreeBSD uses self-hosted subversion. The use of git goes beyond just the choice of version control. It allows for workflows that FreeBSD can't even dream of. The linux kernel has no concept of a committer. Instead anyone can clone the git tree, build a kernel, and call themselves a Linux distribution. Our wiki and code review tools are in an even worse position than our repository. In order to contribute you need to send an email to clusteradm@ and hope they deem you worthy enough of access. The bug tracking system is in a better shape but isn't perfect: while any user can create an account, their privileges are limited: they can't help close out bad PRs, reclassify good ones, or do other generally useful work. To solve this problem I propose a simple solution: self-serve commit access. We create a web service on accounts.freebsd.org via which users can create themselves a freefall account. In addition to a freefall account, the identical username would be created for the wiki and phabricator, bugzilla, and any other service we might provide. This will allow us to quickly gain large number of contributors, who will be able to make better progress on our missing features, and rectify some of the drawbacks listed above. Today I hope we turn ourselves from the cathedral into a truly open and democratic project! -- Eitan Adler