Standing down as release manager

[Valorie Zimmerman]

Hey Jonathan,

On Fri, Oct 23, 2015 at 1:55 AM, Jonathan Riddell <jr at jriddell.org> wrote:
> With 15.10 successfully released I'm standing down as release manager
> of Kubuntu.
>
> Making Kubuntu over the last 10 years has been a fantastic journey.
> Even since I first heard about a spaceman making a Linux distro using
> Debian but faster release cycles I've known this would be something
> important and wanted KDE to be part of it.  Bringing together KDE and
> Ubuntu has created the best operating system we can and the best
> community to work on it.
>
> The life of an international freedom fighter is a fun one, I've
> traveled the world on private jet to meet extraordinary people and see
> amazing places.  I watched monkeys swing from the network cables of
> Bengaluru and raced motorcycles through the slums of Kano. I was a a
> bit put out to be attacked by pirates in the Carribean but the help of
> the Kubuntu community and wider Ubuntu community helped me come back.
>
> Community made open source software needs people to be able to take
> out what they've put in.  Ubuntu's licences and policies enforce this.
> However for the last three years Ubuntu's main sponsor Canonical has
> had a policy contrary to this and after much effort to try to rectify
> this it's clear that isn't going to happen.  The Ubuntu leadership
> seems compliant with this so I find myself unable to continue helping
> a project that won't obey its own community rules and I need to move
> on.  I won't be going far, I'll be helping out in KDE more, the
> original and best end-user free software community who have always
> been wonderful.
>
> At a meeting with the Ubuntu Community Council to find a way forward I
> was told to remove myself from the Kubuntu Council launchpad team.
> This was done under duress and is contrary to to the votes of Kubuntu
> members who were never consulted on this.  No way forward was
> suggested by the UCC.  This has led to to an ambiguous situation on
> whether I'm still in the council or not so I'll now withdraw my
> membership of Kubuntu council to tidy that up.
>
> Ubuntu now needs to work out if it still wants to be a community made
> project.  I've heard from too many people who feel they have been
> bullied out of the project for this to be a personal problem.  It
> needs a community council who will stand up for the third party and
> volunteer developers, who will critisise when money is collected for
> additional use of commmunity but not used for this and who will ensure
> the Ubuntu policies on copyright licences are not in question and
> above all one that does not cause people to leave the project being
> felt they have been bullied out.  Good luck.
>
> In Friendship
>
> Jonathan

My thanks for all you have done to build Kubuntu to what it is today,
with millions of users around the world. I wish you all the best in
your next endeavors, and hope that you will continue to hang out with
us and train your replacement(s)!

We want to continue to provide friendly computing around the world.

I too hope that Ubuntu continues to value truly Free software, and a
friendly and transparent community. I believe that the rest of the
Kubuntu Council joins me in wishing you well in your future work.

All the best,

Valorie

-- 
http://about.me/valoriez