> On July 21, 2019 6:05:28 AM GMT+03:00, bkfuth <[…]> wrote: > > I have used OpenBSD, for years, in my computer security classes. I find > > it best suited for these classes. The governance has never been an > > issue. If you know what you are doing the OpenBSD community is a good > > one. > > Stephen Kolars > > Sent via the Samsung Galaxy Note� 4, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone > > > > -------- Original message -------- > > From: Ingo Schwarze <[…]> > > Date: 7/20/19 21:44 (GMT-06:00) > > To: freen...@gmail.com > > Cc: misc@openbsd.org > > Subject: Re: OpenBSD Project > > > > Hi,Avstin Kim wrote:> My question is, how is the OpenBSD Project > > governance structured;There is no formal structure and no > > "governance".In day to day business, code owners in parts of the system > > decidewhat is done (for example, espie@ in pkg_add(1), myself in > > mandoc(1),claudio@ in OpenBGPD, gilles@ in OpenSMTPd, jsing@ and beck@ > > inLibreSSL, tj@ redgarding the website, and so on; in some areas,more > > than one person owns the code, sometimes up to a handful).In general, > > the people deciding ask themselves which is the besttechnical solution, > > and if there is consensus among developers, itis done.In the rare cases > > of serious disagreement that cannot be resolvedconsensually, or cannot > > be resolved without excessive delay ordiscussion, deraadt@ reserves the > > right to make a final decision,but that does not happen often.There is > > no core team and certainly, there are never any elections.There are no > > written rules whatsoever, and no introduction of anywritten rules is > > planned for the future. The OpenBSD foundationhas absolutely no say > > about any aspect of the OpenBSD project.None of all this is documented > > anywhere because it doesn't matterfor users of the system.If your > > choice of operating system depends on any kind of formalitiesrather > > than on technical quality, OpenBSD is not the project youare looking > > for.Yours, Ingo > > I can only add that ,from all the mailing lists I'm subscribed , > misc@openbsd is \ > the most active mailing list. > > This means alot for me, and I suspect for anyone else using openBSD. > > Best Regards, > Strahil Nikolov
To everyone who took the time to respond, your responses were outstanding; if only a short and sweet additional page could be added to the main OpenBSD Project WWW site (e.g., under “Project Team” or “Developers") that just succinctly summarizes exactly what you all said. For “smaller” projects without formal governance I guess it all comes down to the people; I can see how if you have a dedicated core of really good, passionate developers formal by-laws and committees are superfluous, but then the question is how would that be sustainable over the long term other than just by manually and personally attracting and retaining the best on an ad hoc basis without a codified, structured process. But it seems to be clearly working here. Downloaded the macppc port of OpenBSD 6.5 to install on a couple IBM PowerPC 970/970MP-based Apple Power Mac G5 machines for a class project (I just need some decent, reliable, no-frills servers, but I wanted to try using something other than AMD64/x86-64-based machines for a change) with very low expectations (after trying to install the macppc port of a peer Noteworthy Excellent Tried-and-true BSD distribution which crashed immediately upon running ofwboot off the install ISO), but the installer Just Worked! I don’t understand how this project is able to maintain a working legacy macppc port with so few developers. All the best, Austin “If you want to change the future, start living as if you’re already there.” —Lynn Conway
