LXer: Debian delayed as community loses interest

Published at LXer:

The next version of the Linux distribution was due to be released by 4 December, meaning it is already over two weeks late at the time of writing. Now one of Debian's release managers has started pointing his finger at key individuals. In a blog posted on Monday, Andreas Barth wrote, "Some people who used to do good work reduced their involvement drastically. There was nothing I could do about that, and that happened way before I started full-time on release, but on the global picture that still counts."

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Since his election, Anthony Towns has done two things controversial with the other developers.

One was the inclusion of Java in the Debian (non-free) repos before it was open-sourced. That one worked out ok when Sun, as Towns said they had agreed, went ahead with the open-sourcing of the product. Towns accomplished that by going behind the backs of the developer community.

The Dunc Tank experiment was a little different. Since it was a non-Debian organization, he didn't need approval by the devopers, but he couldn't control their responses, and it was payback time.

No big deal. Etch will be released shortly, and a new Leader will be in place before long, as well. I think Towns did a good job overall, and that both he and the DDs have learned some things that will pay off in the long run.

Debian Rules!!