

CentOS Project Administrator Goes AWOL - alexkay
http://linux.slashdot.org/story/09/07/30/130249/CentOS-Project-Administrator-Goes-AWOL

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gaius
Damn, what if he's lying dead in a ditch somewhere and all anyone cares about
is his AdSense account!

~~~
icey
That's what I thought as well, but after reading more about it, it sounds like
this has been a gradual disappearance. He would show up intermittently at
meetings and never commit to actually getting anything done. His answers were
always "I'll look into that later" and later never came.

I still hope that he's just burnt out and sick of the project versus being
unwell or worse.

~~~
jacquesm
Open source projects are harsh mistresses, lots of flack and fairly little
return for it. You have to have a thick skin to be active at a high level in
open source.

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timmaah
This reminds me.. I got to update the old.. "if a bus hits Tim" documents here
at work.

~~~
makmanalp
It's nuts how many people and businesses just never consider this. I'd have
thought that they'd be especially more careful since there's no binding
contract or whatever between the developers.

As a separate sidenote (don't know if this is the case with centos), this
might be one issue with the benevolent dictator for life method of running
things, as efficient as it may be.

~~~
icey
We actually refer to the "Train Number" on any of our given projects here. The
train number is the number of people that could get hit by a train before the
project fails. If the number is 1 (meaning there is a single critical point
for the project), then we know that cross training has to occur.

~~~
nixme
I've heard it called Bus Factor (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_factor>) or
Truck Number (<http://c2.com/cgi/wiki/wikibase?TruckNumber>).

~~~
icey
Yeah, we use Train number because the new light rail system is right outside
our office and it looks like someone damn near gets hit from walking in front
of the train about 3 times a day.

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jsz0
I really hope his disappearance is the end of this story. The CentOS folks
need to be double checking every bit this guy has touched and fully explore
the other security ramifications. It is a bit concerning how much (PR) damage
one person could do. I can't even grasp the level of crisis this would inflict
on the Linux community (OSS in general) if the story turns worse. (sabotage,
backdoors, etc)

~~~
jacquesm
not sure why you got modded down, this is a factor with the resignation of any
key person in any major enterprise. Surely CentOS is no exception to the rule.

------
jacquesm
There is an open letter up at <http://www.centos.org/>

~~~
RyanMcGreal
_Please do not kill CentOS through your fear of shared management of the
project._

This.

~~~
iigs
CentOS itself may hit the skids but the thing that CentOS represents to the
community will probably never die. Before CentOS had critical mass White Box
Enterprise Linux was another distribution doing the same thing.

It may well be time for everybody else (signers on the open letter, for
example) to found a replacement project and suggest everyone migrate over.
Then the guy who's losing interest can decide whether he wants to play ball or
go home.

~~~
jacquesm
several months of absence of a decision is also a decision.

It is funny that incidents like this highlight a fundamental difference
between bazaar style foss on the one side 'closed' source and corporate style
foss on the other (for instance redhat), the issues surrounding individuals
would never shine through as bright in a corporate setting. The corporate
identity shields to some extent the fact that it too is made up out of
individuals.

------
fogus
There is more information at <http://planet.centos.org> Apparently he's been
AWOL for some months now.

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wglb
Hopefully he is well.

I used centos for a bit with my cluster, but now use
<http://www.caoslinux.org> for use with Perceus. Not that I had problems with
centos, but the integration of the latter two couldn't be better.

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TallGuyShort
First Alan Cox, and now this? I think something fishy is going on...

~~~
dpcan
I know this is supposed to be funny, but this is the FIRST thing that came to
my mind today.

I operate many CentOS, Ubuntu AND Red Hat servers. Seeing key developers drop
from the Linux community (which is the way it sounds) and then to see the lead
project manager of CentOS VANISH is absolutely terrifying.

Here was my SECOND thought. Should I just be using MS servers for everything?

THIRD thought, maybe Red Hat at the very least.

Stuff like this puts a huge scar on open source for the nervous folks like me.
I want to rely on a huge company no more than I do an open source project run
by random people around the world, but I just don't have much of a choice, and
situations like these make me feel totally out of control, and when this
happens, I have to consider paying more so I know the company that manages my
OS will be around tomorrow.

I don't have a "what if a bus hits my OS" document, and I didn't think I
needed one, but all of a sudden... I think that maybe I do.

~~~
Keyframe
Well, yes when you put it like that - however, that CentOS guy apparently was
not in any active role in the project for quite some time now and his
disappearance does nothing to CentOS.

When other people, who actively participate in the project, quit - like Alan
Cox did, most of them - if not all - responsibly manage the transition.

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smithjchris
Holy crap! There goes 25 of my ESX host machines. Might have to buy RHEL now.

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rdtsc
We've been using CentOS in-house but shipping on Redhat RHEL. I imagine that
is fairly common. I wonder if Redhat asked the guy to kill the project (for a
small compensation of course), so the only available RHEL binaries are
produced and sold by Redhat. We would essentially be forced to get licenses
for all our testing and dev machine, which is not cheap.

This is definetly troublesome and suspicious.

~~~
CUViper
Please, there's no need for such FUD.

I work at Red Hat, and the general feeling I see internally is very positive
towards CentOS. Sure, there are a few who would like to be more aggressive
about converting CentOS users to RHEL subscriptions, but I definitely don't
see any conspiracy to kill CentOS.

Besides, the problems now at CentOS are administrative. If that open letter
doesn't accomplish anything, the project could still go on at a new domain
under new, broader leadership.

~~~
rdtsc
> Besides, the problems now at CentOS are administrative.

When the lead developer disappears for a month, without saying anything.
Another developer leaves, disgruntled. Nobody knows what happens with the
money from donations. Those are very serious problems. The kind of problems
that kills a project.

I am sorry for overreacting in respect to Redhat. I know you guys are great.
We use your product. (Although we do like CentOS more for us dev people and
for testing, because it saves us tens of thousands dollars ;-)

~~~
CUViper
I agree that those are nasty problems, but with the passion that went into the
open letter, I believe that the project will survive.

I'm glad that you're not actually soured on Red Hat. And if the best way for
you to support your products on RHEL is to use CentOS, that's still a win for
us. :)

