Vote!

It’s Council election time again. So don’t forget to vote before Sunday at the latest, after church or pastis depending on your religion.

To my great surprise I was nominated again this year. To my even greater surprise I was encouraged by another developer, whose opinion matters to me a lot, to accept my nomination.

I was so not expecting to be nominated that the surprise made me consider accepting for a while. Those who know about my personal situation know how foolish that would be. It kept me thinking until the deadline though, which is why I didn’t formally decline on time. I consider this impolite so please accept this apology.

And since nobody is asking for my opinion here it is. What is important is that you vote, whoever you vote for. But it’s better if you vote right, and this year it’s quite easy.

Whoever is running but can’t be bothered to plan and write a manifesto doesn’t deserve your vote. That leaves 6 candidates.

Whoever doesn’t write a serious manifesto (by serious I mean “not a joke”, I’m not even discussing the actual contents) doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously. That leaves 4 candidates. Please note here that we only have 4 genuinely interested candidates for 7 seats.

Whoever has a technical idea is a good candidate to lead a project but not to the Council. Whoever wants to push a GLEP is a good candidate to become that GLEP’s champion (see workflow) and doesn’t need an election. Claiming “I want a pink pony!” (e.g. git) doesn’t count as an idea. That leaves 2 proposals on the table, and one of them is rather weak.

The good news is that the other one is a lot more than just not weak. Donnie, because that’s who we are talking about, shows he has a rather clear vision of how to go forward. I’m not going to say that it’s the only way forward and that I agree with everything in his manifesto, although I do agree with most of it, and I will let you form your own opinion. As with every council platform it is quite ambitious but it lists practical ideas that do set a direction. When there’s a pile of shit in front of you a long drawn-out plan is not necessary. What is needed is simply to roll-up your sleeves, quit talking and get working on a few simple but efficient actions to get the ball rolling. And Donnie is the man for that.

Sadly, he is the only one I can see.

An email to a friend

Here is an excerpt from an email I have sent to a friend some time ago. Who he is (obviously a Gentoo developer) and what the context was is of no importance. I thought some of you may find it inspirational.

[…] What I did that day wasn’t and still isn’t in any rulebook. It might even have been considered by some as interventionism, and I’m sure some complained about it in my back. But it had to be done and was done in a nice and jolly manner. We all cheered, drank and laughed.

My point is the following. Stop hiding behind rules and processes. Whatever it is, do it for the hell of it, because it has to be done and is what is good for Gentoo. Do it because it’s fun. Do it because you’ll end up helping people and pleasing them. But do it, don’t hide like you were hiding that day […]