CentOS - Dec 2020 - [CentOS-devel] https://blog.centos.org/2020/12/future-is-centos-stream/

On Tue, Dec 08, 2020 at 11:15:04AM -0500, Rich Bowen
wrote:
> That page was never a contract. It's a web page published by an open
source
> project. Please do not misconstrue it as a contract.
I don't think anyone seriously thought it was a contract.

Open Source works largely on trust.  Trust that the developers aren't
going to intentionally harm their users, and the trust that those
developers will provide a consistent product.  Developers earn the
trust of their users.  Trust is the basic commodity for Open Source. 

That doesn't mean that open source providers always provide those
things.  There are many, many stories out there where upstream makes
an abrupt change that their users dislike.  And if you've broken that
trust, end users are going to be wary of ever putting any more trust
in the developers.

Maybe the CentOS Stream thing will work out OK for everyone.  But the
way this was announced, there are a lot of people who have lost trust
in CentOS and Red Hat.  Changing the end of life for CentOS 8 has
broken our trust in the project.

I see a lot of promises that Stream will have better engagement with
the community.  Why would we trust these promises?

-- 
Jonathan Billings <billings at negate.org>

On 12/8/20 10:29 AM, Jonathan Billings wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 08, 2020 at 11:15:04AM -0500, Rich Bowen wrote:
>> That page was never a contract. It's a web page published by an
open source
>> project. Please do not misconstrue it as a contract.
> 
> I don't think anyone seriously thought it was a contract.
> 
> Open Source works largely on trust.  Trust that the developers aren't
> going to intentionally harm their users, and the trust that those
> developers will provide a consistent product.  Developers earn the
> trust of their users.  Trust is the basic commodity for Open Source. 
> 
> That doesn't mean that open source providers always provide those
> things.  There are many, many stories out there where upstream makes
> an abrupt change that their users dislike.  And if you've broken that
> trust, end users are going to be wary of ever putting any more trust
> in the developers.
> 
> Maybe the CentOS Stream thing will work out OK for everyone.  But the
> way this was announced, there are a lot of people who have lost trust
> in CentOS and Red Hat.  Changing the end of life for CentOS 8 has
> broken our trust in the project.
> 
> I see a lot of promises that Stream will have better engagement with
> the community.  Why would we trust these promises?
> 
You should NOT trust them.  You should observe them.

On 12/8/20 11:29 AM, Jonathan Billings wrote:
> I see a lot of promises that Stream will have better engagement with
> the community.  Why would we trust these promises?
"Better engagement with the community" of course requires that the 
community step up and engage. Trust isn't something anyone expects to 
just magically happen.