Where is FreeBSD going?

[Mark Murray]

Paul Robinson writes:
> "In short, you can put all the effort you want in, but -core and many 
> with a commit bit will resent you for it, because you're just a user."
> 
> 4. In private I've already apologised for that particualr comment as I 
> realise now it was very "Daily Mail" of me to make it (for those of you 
> without access to the Daily Mail, congratualations), and it's only fair 
> as it spilled out onto the public lists, that I apologise here too. Mark 
> also apologised for swearing at me.

I consider hands to have been shaken over this. :-).

> And for those of you who normally shout "Submit a patch" - well, I'm 
> thinking about it. :-)

I've been thinking of your objection to the "submit a patch" reply,
and I offer this as a proto-thought on how it can be applied to
non-coders:

As FreeBSD is a volunteer project, I suspect part of the problem
is getting said volunteers to do things that they would otherwise
not do. "Submit a patch" can be easily(?) extendted to cover a much
wider area of volunteer-organised work than simply code. Under
specifically _patches_, there are code, documentation and web page
patches, but there is also a need for organizational skills. The
PR database frequently gets blitzed by keen folks who get lots of
PRs closed, follwed by burnout.  We are doing rather well with our
release-engineering team (Go Scott L!), and our currently active
admin@ crowd are doing a great job, but we could still use skills,
and these are not necessarily of the coding kind.

SO - instead of "submit a patch" perhaps if we were to go "submit
something tangible and useful"?

This can be anything that will forward the progress of FreeBSD. It
could be something lofty like paying the salary of a developer who
will then work primarily on projects useful to yourself. It could
be commissioned work for a particular project you would like to see
done. It could be a financial or equipment donation. It could be a
donation of your time in a way that would be useful (please help
here by finding something that needs doing and offering to do it,
rather than expecting us geeks to find it for you!).  It could be
_anything_ that forwards the aims of the project and that you can
do, and it preferably needs to be something that can be done
autonomously (or as autonomously as possible). You will not get
paid, you may not get thanked, but you will have the satisfaction
of actually getting something done, and if you like FreeBSD as much
as I do, that is an end in itself!

M
--
Mark Murray
iumop ap!sdn w,I idlaH