Core Developer application for Michael Casadevall (NCommander/sonicmctails)

Michael Casadevall sonicmctails at gmail.com
Tue Jan 13 06:59:33 GMT 2009


Steve Kowalik wrote:
> Michael Casadevall wrote:
>> Steve Kowalik wrote:
>>> It's all very well and good to say that you can step down before burning
>>> out, but stepping down from things that you have started as a core-dev
>>> often has a considerably larger effect on the wider Ubuntu Community, as
>>> so many more people are exposed to your work in the first place. This is
>>> why sustained contribution in the first place is so important -- because
>>> Ubuntu, like every other software project, tries to minimise people
>>> walking away from the project, and parts of the project suffering, or
>>> even being removed completely, as a result.
>>>
>> I don't disagree with you here, and your right, having someone who was
>> working on a project die on that project is a bad thing, something I am
>> always working to try and avoid on my projects, I still fail to see what
>> having upload rights to main has to do with this. The only difference
>> between a MOTU and being a core developer is I don't have to pester core
>> sponsors
> 
> This is the crux of the issue -- It is not just upload rights, and if
> you're under that impression, then you aren't ready. Main is important,
> and more often than not, will directly affect CD image builds. You fail
> to keep this in mind, and just think that core-dev is *just* about
> upload rights.
> 

The way you act gives me the very distinct impression that being a MOTU
is a lower level of developer than being a core dev. Maybe I'm wrong,
but the general impression I got from the wiki, and from UDS is that we
simply have Ubuntu Developers, who differ in their ability to upload to
sections of the archive; this very issue came up during the archive
reorg meeting about classification of developers.

Futhermore, I'm fully aware of the implications of uploading to main,
and how those uploads affect CD image builds; I am a Xubuntu developer,
the same rule applies to uploads of our packages in universe, and while
Xubuntu userbase is not as large as either Ubuntu or Kubuntu, it is
large enough that should something go snap and break, my inbox gets
flooded by bug reports coming in.

> There are other things at work here, that I've already mentioned in an
> other e-mail. It isn't that they directly affect your rights to the
> archive, but they show me that you switch from project to project
> quickly, whereas a more sustained contribution to large-scale projects
> would be better.
> 

I won't deny the fact that I do work on a variety of projects. I
consider myself a generalist, and I consider that a strength; that I can
go to a project, and assist to help meet goals. The key word is assist.
to cite an example, towards the end of intrepid, the linux-rt kernel
needed some last might work, and while I have no personal indication
towards using Studio, it did not prevent me doing said work. There is a
difference assisting in helping a project, and being a sustained
contributor.

If you want to look at sustained contribution, then I submit both
Xubuntu and the Ubuntu ARM port, both things I've been working on
constantly throughout this cycle (and in Xubuntu's case, Intrepid) to
improve, even when the work was slow, mind numbing, or even in cases
where I wanted to send my head through a brick wall in frustration.
Michael




More information about the Motu-council mailing list