Shall we fork Debian?

#1

Post by kissgyorgy » Sun, Oct 19, 2014, 8:34 AM UTC

Re: Shall we fork Debian?

#2

Post by jermo » Sun, Oct 19, 2014, 8:51 AM UTC

The main reason for forking seems to be opposition to SystemD. Initially I was unconvinced but then I remembered the recent story of Lennart Poettering (one of the authors of SystemD) on The State Of Open Source Communities where he describes the hostility towards him personally https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8414859

In light of that, forking is a more civilised approach than bullying and threatening the author.

Re: Shall we fork Debian?

#3

Post by iptel » Sun, Oct 19, 2014, 8:51 AM UTC

Yes

Re: Shall we fork Debian?

#4

Post by martin_ » Sun, Oct 19, 2014, 9:07 AM UTC

From the article: We are excluded from voting on the issue: only few of us have the time and patience to interact with Debian on a voluntary basis.

Using the same argument, forking would seem like a horrible idea if there isn't active maintainers.

Re: Shall we fork Debian?

#5

Post by qznc » Sun, Oct 19, 2014, 9:10 AM UTC

How does forking Debian solve anything?

The issue is that Gnome, KDE, and other software requires systemd. You need to fix/maintain their compatibility with other init systems. Then it is easy for Debian user to switch init systems.

Re: Shall we fork Debian?

#6

Post by linuxydave » Sun, Oct 19, 2014, 9:13 AM UTC

martin_ wrote: post #4

From the article: We are excluded from voting on the issue: only few of us have the time and patience to interact with Debian on a voluntary basis. Using the same argument, forking would seem like a horrible idea if there isn't active maintainers.

I think their idea is to try get the ball rolling so that others will pick it up. Still a lazy idea if they don't have the time to maintain :(

Re: Shall we fork Debian?

#7

Post by 23david » Sun, Oct 19, 2014, 9:16 AM UTC

Yes we shall...

Re: Shall we fork Debian?

#8

Post by LukaD » Sun, Oct 19, 2014, 9:17 AM UTC

Go ahead and fork. Just leave me alone while I enjoy using systemd. I think some people are taking this way too personal and overreact. Forking is probably the best way to stop all the whining.

Re: Shall we fork Debian?

#9

Post by stonith » Sun, Oct 19, 2014, 9:18 AM UTC

qznc wrote: post #5

How does forking Debian solve anything? The issue is that Gnome, KDE, and other software requires systemd. You need to fix/maintain their compatibility with other init systems. Then it is easy for Debian user to switch init systems.

You listed two desktop environments, neither of which are of interest to sysadmins.

Eg. I run an Openstack cluster and do not care if there are gnome or kde packages available. I don't particularly like systemd and would be happier not having to deal with the compatibility and/or conversion issues for what I perceive as minimal benefit.

Re: Shall we fork Debian?

#10

Post by awalton » Sun, Oct 19, 2014, 9:20 AM UTC

Yes, please.

But I won't be surprised to see them come slinking back in four months with their tails tucked when nobody's actually maintaining any software for the fork.

Fork off and die.

p.s.: it's systemd, not SystemD.