Why Isn’t OpenBSD in Google Summer of Code 2017?
1–10 of 66 posts
Re: Why Isn’t OpenBSD in Google Summer of Code 2017?
#2This is sad.
It means that Google Summer of Code imposes too much bureaucracy onto Free Software projects. In other words, GSoC is only viable for those projects whohave enough spare volunteers to begin with.
Re: Why Isn’t OpenBSD in Google Summer of Code 2017?
#3I don't know exactly how big the OpenBSD volunteer team is but I think it must be substantially larger than most open source projects because of their user base. This is a weak argument to not participate in GSoC. There are multiple projects with a much smaller volunteer base than OpenBSD who participate in GSoC.
At the same time I do recognize that the effort involved for mentoring someone is huge and the actual payout is not much for the mentor (it was $500 the time I participated).
I think it is viable to see GSoC as a platform through which you can reward your existing student contributors as well - ask them apply through GSoC and they can get paid for their contributions. This eliminates the effort involved in onboarding new contributors and also provides a nice reward for the existing contributors.
Re: Why Isn’t OpenBSD in Google Summer of Code 2017?
#4This is sad. It means that Google Summer of Code imposes too much bureaucracy onto Free Software projects. In other words, GSoC is only viable for those projects whohave enough spare volunteers to begin with.
I think in OpenBSD's case it was that, plus the fact that they got essentially zero code that was anywhere near their standards, or any devs willing to commit longer-term to improve it. If the results had been better, more mentors/devs would have been willing to step up.
GSOC promotes dumps of low to mid quality code that then goes unmaintained. After all its focused on relatively junior programmers doing it for a nice stipend as part of their school experience for a summer (or so).
GSOC is just a bad fit for the sort of quality and maintainership OpenBSD demands from its codebase and contributors. They have had a lot of years of experience with academic code mostly written as a proof of concept without an eye to maintainability that later rots in tree and makes everyone else's job worse.
Re: Why Isn’t OpenBSD in Google Summer of Code 2017?
#5This is sad. It means that Google Summer of Code imposes too much bureaucracy onto Free Software projects. In other words, GSoC is only viable for those projects whohave enough spare volunteers to begin with.
On the other hand, if a student wishes to do OpenBSD-related work during the GSoC, they need to find another mentoring organization. Most are related to specific projects, but I think at least some of them, like the Apache Foundation, are general enough to at least consider mentoring such a project.
Re: Why Isn’t OpenBSD in Google Summer of Code 2017?
#6I don't know exactly how big the OpenBSD volunteer team is but I think it must be substantially larger than most open source projects because of their user base. This is a weak argument to not participate in GSoC. There are multiple projects with a much smaller volunteer base than OpenBSD who participate in GSoC. At the same time I do recognize that the effort involved for mentoring someone is huge and the actual pay…
> This is a weak argument to not participate in GSoC
Hey, at least have the courage and in integrity to tell them directly how to run their project. On the mailing list. Not here.
Open source drive-by project management is one of the most fascinating (and sad) phenomenon to me. How can people who have no association with some other group of individuals have the audacity to tell them how to spend their time and how to run their project. It's bewildering.
Re: Why Isn’t OpenBSD in Google Summer of Code 2017?
#7I don't know exactly how big the OpenBSD volunteer team is but I think it must be substantially larger than most open source projects because of their user base. This is a weak argument to not participate in GSoC. There are multiple projects with a much smaller volunteer base than OpenBSD who participate in GSoC. At the same time I do recognize that the effort involved for mentoring someone is huge and the actual pay…
> This is a weak argument to not participate in GSoC Hey, at least have the courage and in integrity to tell them directly how to run their project. On the mailing list. Not here. Open source drive-by project management is one of the most fascinating (and sad) phenomenon to me. How can people who have no association with some other group of individuals have the audacity to tell them how to spend their time and how to…
I guess I wasn't very clear in my comment. I don't use OpenBSD, I don't subscribe to their mailing list and I am not a contributor. Hence, it will be nonsensical of me to go and criticize their decisions there.
Also I can't tell if you are directing the last part of your comment towards me or towards Google, but I certainly respect their decision to not participate. They participated previously and decided that the payout in terms of new contributors wasn't worth it (and I agree with them there) - at the same time there is a second angle to look at GSoC from and that is what I pointed out in the last part of my comment.
Re: Why Isn’t OpenBSD in Google Summer of Code 2017?
#8I'm a GSoC org admin for a few years now. To be honest, the bureaucracy that comes with GSoC is really negligible from my point of view. The application form is fairly short, the evaluations during the summer are literally done in five minutes... there really isn't that much overhead.
The part that takes a lot of time for us is mentoring students. You'll very likely invest more time into the student than it would take you to write everything yourself (which also would be more fun). Unfortunately, some students don't stick around, but if everything works out, you'll get fantastic long-term contributors (we did). The upfront investment on the mentor' side may not be everyone's cup of tea (and that's ok), but I think it's unfair to attribute that to bureaucracy. GSoC may just not be a good fit for OpenBSD in that regard.
Re: Why Isn’t OpenBSD in Google Summer of Code 2017?
#9I guess that's a sign of a really unhealthy community if they have no process of getting hackers into their system so that they can get productive within 15 weeks.
I really don't buy the "too much bureaucracy" argument. Google is really transparent in terms of GSoC and I would say they're really well managed. I read that as a sign of OpenBSD's weakness, not Google's.
Re: Why Isn’t OpenBSD in Google Summer of Code 2017?
#10I don't know exactly how big the OpenBSD volunteer team is but I think it must be substantially larger than most open source projects because of their user base. This is a weak argument to not participate in GSoC. There are multiple projects with a much smaller volunteer base than OpenBSD who participate in GSoC. At the same time I do recognize that the effort involved for mentoring someone is huge and the actual pay…
> This is a weak argument to not participate in GSoC Hey, at least have the courage and in integrity to tell them directly how to run their project. On the mailing list. Not here. Open source drive-by project management is one of the most fascinating (and sad) phenomenon to me. How can people who have no association with some other group of individuals have the audacity to tell them how to spend their time and how to…
Well, the way they spoke out about their lack of participation kinda hurts the perception of GSoC, thus I'd say it's a good moment to talk about it.
Also, is there a list of software development taboos we shouldn't discuss here or it's just my impression that it's a bit too easy to get you angry by a simple comment?