Debian Miniconf4

State of the Project,

Software Defined Radio,

and Other Musings

Bdale Garbee

bdale@gag.com

Where Things Stand

LCA being in April means we just elected a DPL!

Six candidates, two from Australia!

Sarge release is “closer”

Freeze mostly waiting on testing-security and arm

Release is “weeks away”?

The best way you can help get Sarge released is to work on closing RC bugs!

The roles and impacts of derivative distributions

It keeps growing, and growing, and growing ...

“Now that I've had a few days to wrap my head around the reality of attaining something to which I've aspired for years, I feel deeply humbled by the authority with which I have been entrusted. While it's tempting in some ways for me to look at my election as the culmination of a long process, I know that a better way to approach this office is to look at it as a beginning. I've been exercising my leadership skills to a lesser degree for years, but now I feel like a piece of code that's been through QA but is now in production. The real-world tests of my character and talent begin now, and the past is merely prelude.”

Branden Says...

SDR

Software Defined Radio

Do as much of the work of building new communications systems as possible in software

GNU Radio

packaged by Ramakrishnan Muthukrishnan

Bdale is giving a talk on SDR / GNU Radio today at 2pm in the Embedded Miniconf ... with live demos if everything works!

Bdale is giving an LCA talk on “Moonbounce” communications on Thursday at 1:30pm

Musings

DPL Elections

Electing a DPL is “strange” for Debian

We value working together, but we reward competitive individuals

Debian may now be too complex for one person

Our constitution constrains the role of DPL

We spend 9 weeks each year on the process...

Technical Committee

Our Technical Committee is not particularly satisfying as currently defined

Perception of inactivity leads to lack of use

Composition of the committee needs a periodic review and refresh

Many appear to wish the committee would take a more active role in defining Debian technical direction

SPI / Debian Relationship

At Debconf 3 in Oslo, there was a session about SPI. We talked about the “Foundation” model (used by GNOME, Apache, etc) as a possible fix or replacement for SPI

Since that time, SPI has mostly fixed itself, but Debian developers should get more involved!

There still may be things we can take from the foundation model, though, like elected boards

Project SCUD

I have advised/helped every DPL since Bruce...

When I first heard about it, project SCUD felt to me like an attempt to address some of these issues, working within the context of our current constitution. But you've raised concerns:

Relationship between the DPL and team is not clear

Team is mostly self-selected

At least one significant group of Debian project participants felt excluded

Project SCUD is a hack. We can do better.

Amending Debian's Constitution

Maybe it's time to ditch the model of a DPL and a Technical Committee, and replace it with an elected leadership board?

Roles would be appointed/delegated by the board

Candidates would be motivated to campaign on how well they can work on a team

More qualified people are likely to run for a board than for an individual post

Easier to take a proactive role than current Tech Ctte

Think about it, work on a GR during Debconf 5?

Questions?

2005-04-17T22:04:06