Date: Tue, 09 Mar 1999 20:04:22 -0700 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: Brett Taylor <brett@peloton.physics.montana.edu> Cc: wes@softweyr.com, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: volunteering (was Re: Ports) Message-ID: <4.1.19990309194523.04046c40@localhost> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9903091447090.14956-100000@peloton.physics.m ontana.edu> References: <4.1.19990309142131.00ca2cc0@localhost>
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At 03:02 PM 3/9/99 -0700, Brett Taylor wrote: >And do you not patch security holes in the OS? Only when necessary. And there are very few. >You have to do that by >hand since you apparently only run releases. You are completely >inconsistent - you are apparently happy to patch security holes in the OS >but not in the ports. That's not what I said. Again, the biggest problem is the downloading of ports that are old versions with unfixed security problems. One might not know that these need to be patched. >> Give me a break. The two most recent offers I've made to "give back" >> have been rejected. One of these -- an offer to devote a bunch of time >> to getting FreeBSD running on IBM Netfinity servers -- was rejected >> rather capriciously. Such treatment doesn't exactly make folks feel as >> if contributions are welcome. > >Maybe that's because you insulted Mike Smith when you did it? I didn't insult anyone. After Mike's initial response, it became clear that he might have overlooked something, so I tried to explain -- not by insulting him but in clear technical terms -- why it might be useful to try the plan of attack I had in mind. Terry Lambert, who also has experience in this area, concurred. Certainly, there was nothing to lose by allowing me to try, and I would have been willing to try other approaches if that one did not pan out. But instead of giving me the opportunity to do so, Mike simply dismissed my offer and dropped off the thread. >I don't >know how you think you come across to people, but you come off as a >know-it-all, I've never claimed to know it all; however, this is certainly the kind of work with which I have had a lot of experience. >not willing to actually contribute Non sequitur. I was volunteering to contribute a great deal of time and effort, if necessary. >whiner An uncalled-for pejorative. "I'm voicing legitimate concerns. You're a whiner." >who hates the GPL. Again, an uncalled-for pejorative. I have critically examined the GPL and its intended and actual effects, and have found much evidence to support the assertion that it will do a great deal of harm to markets, consumers, and programmers' livelihoods. That's not "hate;" it's careful analysis and foresight. >I've told you two times now there are plenty of ways to contribute by >maintaining ports. Hell, you don't even have to become the maintainer. >Take a port that doesn't work under 2.2.8 now due to the changeover to >ELF. Fix it so it works for 2.2.8 without breaking it for -STABLE. Make >a diff, send-pr to ports and get it committed. It's not that hard. You >don't have to ask anyone. You don't _need_ permission to go futz w/ the >port from the maintainer. You SHOULD submit your diffs to him before >doing the send-pr but that's not a big deal. If you want to be really >polite you would send an email saying "I'm trying to make this port work >for 2.2.8 wo/ breaking the -STABLE build. I'll send you any diffs when I >get this done." I seriously doubt that any maintainer would mind. This would not be an efficient solution, as I would have less knowledge of the port than the maintainer and it would only fix one port. I propose that a mechanism be BUILT INTO the ports system to make it easy to maintain ports for versions of the OS which are up to a year old. >Everyone else who has been on this thread is listed as a developer or >contributor in the handbook. You are not. True. Again, I've been interested in contributing, but my proposals seem to have been rebuffed by the Great Inner Cabal. >All of us have spent time actually working on making FreeBSD better. So have I, but only on the systems that I myself maintain. My attempts to contribute that code back have not been met with a warm reception. I hope you can understand why, after two or three attempts, I've been discouraged. >Yes, you've written articles. Very good ones, I think. >Great. Then you antagonize all of the Linux (and BSD) people about the >GPL My remarks have only been seen as antagonistic by a few zealots. I've received a LOT of private mail of the form, "Thank you for alerting me to this. I don't want to get flamed, so I'm saying so in private." >and take a pool of people who might switch to FreeBSD and push them >away. I have seen no evidence that ANYONE has actually failed to switch to FreeBSD on my account. As far as I know, the one flamer who claimed that has now admitted that he was just flaming. --Brett To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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