On Fri, 01 Sep 2006 17:53:56 -0500 (CDT)
"Johan A. van Zanten" <johan@giantfoo.org> wrote:
> 
> IMO, the "shut up and stop whining" responses don't add anything to the
> discussion, and lower the speaker's credibility.  When it comes from a
> member of the Foundation, it reflects badly on the Foundation.
> 
>  -johan

As someone who has used NetBSD for only a year, and done no development
on the code, I am nobody of consequence in this discussion over the
organization of NetBSD.  At the same time, I want to see the NetBSD
project succeed. I believe in it's development philosophy and for me it
is the most enjoyable *nix OS to use.  

There may be aspects of the project that need to be shaken from their
doldrums, and steps that can be taken to ensure the future of the
project.  Certainly critisism of the organization should be examined at
that level and steps should be taken.  Every organization needs that
sort of discussion from time to time.

However, publicizing that the project is irrelevant in the same week
that a person is no longer a developer betrays ulterior motives and is
more sad than anything else.  This thread has spawned no new ideas, no
good discussion, and no real solutions in two days of open combat. It
has exposed a petty, embarassing political battle to our compatriots in
the Open Source community and to the world at large. And for what end?
The project will not be razed. TNF will not be plowed under and sown
with salt. Mr. Hannum will apparently not be restored to his prior
position of influence.

In other words, his parting salvo has done plenty of damage, but no
good.  It is much like Woody Hayes punching the Clemson player in
1978.  As a user and advocate of the project, I am pretty disgusted by
all of this.  If there's something that really needs to be sorted about
revitalizing areas of the code base, then it should be taken to the
tech mailing lists.  Trying to incite a user base revolt here and on
other BSD message boards is a selfish  and destructive way to go about
things. 

-Matt Rolf