A somewhat overblown article complains that one of the biggest open-source projects is in danger of "dying" because of internal politics. After reading the evidence, I don't agree with the conclusions.
But here's a fascinating passage about an internal motion to recall the head of the Debian project:
Interestingly, Towne [the project head] has seconded the motion for his own recall, to bring the matter to a decision.
He wrote, "I'm seconding this because I do think it's a fair question for the project to consider, and to make it clear I don't personally have any problem with being recalled if that's what the project thinks is right and proper..."I read this differently than the author of the aritcle. This passage indicates amazingly healthy debate within the Debian project, an interesting internal culture, and how very different an open-source project can be from a commercial project. The disaggregation of ownership and the diffuse governing structure (the disaggregation of authority) produced a situation in which someone can sincerely consider resigning without bitterness — a situation that's exceedingly rare in any traditionally-structured community service project, and almost unthinkable in the corporate world.
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