Re: Analysis of the ballot options

2004-06-20 Thread Wouter Verhelst
On Sat, Jun 19, 2004 at 11:43:17PM +0100, Andrew Suffield wrote:
 [This guy is a troll; just rebutting the misinformation so that people
 aren't confused]

Yeah, right.

 On Sat, Jun 19, 2004 at 09:23:05PM +0200, Wouter Verhelst wrote:
   On Fri, Jun 18, 2004 at 12:59:33PM -0500, Debian Project Secretary wrote:
[   ] Choice 1: Postpone changes until September 2004  [needs 3:1]
[   ] Choice 2: Postpone changes until Sarge releases  [needs 3:1]
[   ] Choice 3: Add apology to Social Contract [needs 3:1]
[   ] Choice 4: Revert to old wording of SC[needs 3:1]
[   ] Choice 5: Transition Guide foundation document [needs 3:1]
[   ] Choice 6: Reaffirm the current SC[needs 1:1]
[   ] Choice 7: Further discussion
   
   Options 1-3 are essentially clones with subtle variations. 2 is the
   same as 1, but without the time limit. 3 is the same as 2, but is less
   intrusive
  
  Modifying the social contract permanently (as opposed to temporarily
  overruling it) to address temporary problems is seen as less
  intrusive?
 
 This is factually incorrect; that is not what option 3 does.

What?

checks

Well, OK. Missed part 2 of that proposal. Sorry; my bad.

The rest of what I said stands, though; I think that modifying the SC to
add an apology is one bridge too far. The Social Contract is a statement
of principles; it should not disvalidate itself. If we cannot follow up
on our principles because they happen to conflict[0], then that is a
problem; but an explanation of that fact does not belong in that very
statement of principles (it should be somewhere, but not in the SC).
Therefore, I resent the idea that option three would be a refined
version of option one and two.

[0] Yes, they conflict. I am aware of your opinion that having free
software and doing what's best for our users can not conflict;
however, I disagree. Let me explain:
* Having a distribution that consists entirely of free software is,
  indeed, good for our users. Many of our users depend on Debian being
  entirely free software; changing that without notice wouldn't be nice,
  so it's better to release only when the distribution is fully free.
* Having a distribution which actually releases within a decent period
  after the previous release is also good for our users. Our users are
  not served best by having horribly outdated software in our latest
  stable release; the world changes, and so do software requirements.
  For some of our users (and their number increases every day as the
  woody release gets older), stable is already completely useless.
These two are, at this very moment, in conflict. To get a distribution
which is best according to the first argument, we would need to postpone
the release. To get a distribution which is best according to the second
argument, we would need to release ASAP.

The question, however, is not what is good for our users (both courses
of action are, depending on the POV); the question is what's best for
our users. To answer that question, we have to decide how bad it is that
the software in woody is outdated. Some people, including you, have
the opinion that it is not so bad that we should release sooner rather
than later; others, including me and, if I'm not mistaken, Andreas
Barth, have the opinion that the problem with woody being outdated has
now reached the point where it's more of a problem than the problem
where some parts of a stable distribution are non-free. Parts which, I
should note, have not been considered as parts that should be free in
/any/ previous release.

   Option 5 may in itself be a good idea, but it is essentially
   orthogonal here, and worse, it doesn't actually answer the question of
   what do we do about sarge? - it just says carry on, which says
   non-free release if you were expecting a non-free release and free
   release if you were expecting a free release.
  
  Actually, it says we reaffirm the previous GR, but it won't be active
  before the next release.
 
 This is pure fiction.

I don't see how.

OK, granted, it does not literally say that the previous GR is
reaffirmed. However, I don't think that anyone who would want such a
transition plan would want to get rid of the previous GR. In practice,
if this option is accepted, the previous GR will be accepted as well.

The transition plan does, in practice, also lay out when the changes to
the SC made by the previous GR will be active: when sarge gets out the
door.

To quote the proposed transition plan:

 In the specific case of General Resolution 2004_003, since that release
 currently in preparation, code named Sarge, is very close to release,
 and the previously released version is quite out of date, our
 commitment to our users dictates that the Sarge release should go on
 as planned - even while we are in the process of reaching compliance
 with the new Social Contract. This exemption for Sarge applies to
 security releases and point releases as well.

   

Re: Analysis of the ballot options

2004-06-20 Thread Andreas Barth
* Andrew Suffield ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) [040620 00:55]:
 [This guy is a troll; just rebutting the misinformation so that people
 aren't confused]

Would you mind to not do ad-hominem attacks?


Andi
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Re: Analysis of the ballot options

2004-06-20 Thread Andreas Barth
* Andrew Suffield ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) [040620 01:10]:
 [This is just a thinly veiled personal attack; filling in the gaps for
 people who haven't followed -vote]
 
 On Sat, Jun 19, 2004 at 10:56:49PM +0200, Andreas Barth wrote:
   On Fri, Jun 18, 2004 at 12:59:33PM -0500, Debian Project Secretary wrote:
[   ] Choice 1: Postpone changes until September 2004  [needs 3:1]
[   ] Choice 2: Postpone changes until Sarge releases  [needs 3:1]
[   ] Choice 3: Add apology to Social Contract [needs 3:1]
[   ] Choice 4: Revert to old wording of SC[needs 3:1]
[   ] Choice 5: Transition Guide foundation document [needs 3:1]
[   ] Choice 6: Reaffirm the current SC[needs 1:1]
  Choice 6 is titled wrong. It's not a reaffirmation of the social
  contract, it's an affirmation of a certain interpretation of the
  social contract. An affirmation of another interpretation of the
  social contract was not allowed to be put on the ballot.

 Andreas made an ill-formed proposal which the project secretary
 rejected for this ballot, and refused all suggestions about how it
 should be properly formed. He appears to hold a grudge, I'm not sure
 why.

Ah, never retain from a ad-hominem attacks, eh?


 Here's the thread root:
 http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2004/06/msg0.html
 
 And here's Manoj's brief analysis:
 http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2004/06/msg00024.html

The reason is - as discussed on d-vote - that dropping half of the
statement (the part about our social contract tells us we should
release) does change that proposal in an unacceptable way.
Furthermore, a lot of developers asked me - through mail or on IRC -
to not put some further option on the ballot to make it not even more
difficult.



   Option 6 is the other position - that free software is what matters.
 
  Option 6 is the position that our users don't matter, and it's not
  important to release.
 
 I already covered this one in my first mail, but anyway: this is based
 on the assumption that our users are best served by non-free
 software. See the thread parent for a more detailed rebuttal.

Are you dumb or a lying? Again: Our users are served good by:
- a current stable release
- free software

At the moment, we don't have any of them. Our stable release contains
items which are non-free, according to your interpretation of the
social contract (have you ever taken a look to
/usr/share/info/gcc-295.info.gz on a woody system?).

For someone who lives in the real world, and where time does matter,
I'm convinced that we should release now, and that also our social
contract encourages this. You may of course disagree, but please stop
ad-hominem attacks, and malicious gossip. Thanks.


Andi
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Re: Analysis of the ballot options

2004-06-20 Thread Andreas Barth
* Thomas Bushnell, BSG ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) [040620 03:40]:
 Andreas Barth [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
  Option 6 is the position that our users don't matter, and it's not
  important to release.

 Hrm.  I think giving our users non-free software hurts them.  I'm
 against hurting our users, therefore I'm against releasing non-free
 software.

Please see /usr/share/info/gcc-295.info.gz in woody. Do you consider
it more worse to replace that file with the appropriate file from
sarge? I'm also against releasing non-free software, but I'm even more
against not releasing at all. So, at the moment, I consider it the
right thing to do to release sarge _now_, and resolve the kernel
issues etc after that.


Cheers,
Andi
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Re: Analysis of the ballot options

2004-06-20 Thread Andreas Barth
* Thomas Bushnell, BSG ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) [040620 05:25]:
 But I was responding to the claim that my camp is somehow not
 interested in the well-being of our users, or that we place it
 second-best.  We place it first-best--just as you do; the disagreement
 is not about whether or how important it is to help our users.  

That's a good summary. I responded to the same claim.


Cheers,
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Re: Analysis of the ballot options

2004-06-20 Thread Raul Miller
  Software which can't be ported, which can't have security problems
  resolved, which can't be delivered, and which can't be used are all
  examples of problems we're trying to avoid.

On Sun, Jun 20, 2004 at 01:39:39PM +1000, Ben Burton wrote:
 Does can't be used include had its documentation removed?

Obviously, that's one of the problems we're trying to decide how to
address.

-- 
Raul


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Re: Analysis of the ballot options

2004-06-20 Thread Josip Rodin
On Sat, Jun 19, 2004 at 07:47:07PM +0100, Andrew Suffield wrote:
   I would point out that historically, Debian does not release before it
   is ready, and that's why our releases usually work so well. Option 3
   is the release before it is ready, because releasing is more
   important than being ready option. Option 6 is the better rather
   than sooner option.
  
  Non sequitur - the premise is vaguely correct, but I disagree that the two
  conclusions follow from it. It doesn't make sense to me that readiness and
  usability of Debian releases are to be achieved by removing stuff that
  was not supposed to be removed just a while ago.
 
 Only if you take it as a given that the old release policy was
 correct. Otherwise it's just that heads have been forcibly removed
 from the sand now.

Well, the old release policy can't have been all that wrong given that
nobody actually proposed changing it -- the proposal was clearly aimed
at clarifying the language of the social contract, not at changing its
intent and/or purpose.

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Re: Analysis of the ballot options

2004-06-20 Thread Josip Rodin
On Sat, Jun 19, 2004 at 10:56:49PM +0200, Andreas Barth wrote:
   [   ] Choice 6: Reaffirm the current SC[needs 1:1]
 Choice 6 is titled wrong. It's not a reaffirmation of the social
 contract, it's an affirmation of a certain interpretation of the
 social contract. An affirmation of another interpretation of the
 social contract was not allowed to be put on the ballot.

Not allowed? Really? And all this time I thought that my opinion was simply
in a minority so small that nobody bothered making a proposal out of it! :)

sigh

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Re:

2004-06-20 Thread Robertson



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Re: Analysis of the ballot options

2004-06-20 Thread Chris Cheney
On Sun, Jun 20, 2004 at 10:59:44AM +0200, Andreas Barth wrote:
 Are you dumb or a lying? Again: Our users are served good by:
 - a current stable release
 - free software
 
 At the moment, we don't have any of them. Our stable release contains
 items which are non-free, according to your interpretation of the
 social contract (have you ever taken a look to
 /usr/share/info/gcc-295.info.gz on a woody system?).
 
 For someone who lives in the real world, and where time does matter,
 I'm convinced that we should release now, and that also our social
 contract encourages this. You may of course disagree, but please stop
 ad-hominem attacks, and malicious gossip. Thanks.

You're real world doesn't look like mine at least unless you intend to
release Sarge with nearly 300 RC bugs?  By the time all those RC bugs
are fixed we could easily have removed all the non-free software from
Debian main as well...

Chris


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Re: Analysis of the ballot options

2004-06-20 Thread Milan Zamazal
My analysis is that this GR is simply insane.

The previous GR (2004 vote 003) was presented as editorial amendments,
so it can hardly have significant influence on our releases.  From this
point of view proposals A, B, C, E make no sense to me.

I can't see any good reason to support proposal F -- Social Contract
already defines our goals which we may successfully meet or we may
(despite our best efforts) fail on them (we may fail to release sarge
without any DFSG problems or we may fail to release any further stable
version at all).

Proposal D may make sense if one feels fooled by presenting the previous
GR as editorial amendments and wants to revert it for that reason.  But
in any case, I don't think the changes to DFSG are wrong, so Debian
shouldn't make to look itself even more foolish by making and reverting
changes without really good reasons.

IMHO the proper response to this insane GR is --1 (without actually
performing Further Discussion after the voting ends).  And I won't
repeat my mistake of ignoring the votings I don't consider significant
enough.

Milan Zamazal

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Re: Analysis of the ballot options

2004-06-20 Thread W. Borgert
On Sun, Jun 20, 2004 at 12:32:24PM -0500, Chris Cheney wrote:
 You're real world doesn't look like mine at least unless you intend to
 release Sarge with nearly 300 RC bugs?  By the time all those RC bugs
 are fixed we could easily have removed all the non-free software from
 Debian main as well...

Two problems:

1. Removing things will surely introduce new bugs.

2. We have enough to do fixing some hundreds of RC bugs, I
   don't like another discration.

Let us release sarge ASAP - not before - and do other
important things - hive off non-free, multi-arch - later.

Cheers, WB


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Re: Analysis of the ballot options

2004-06-20 Thread Andreas Barth
* Josip Rodin ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) [040620 17:10]:
 On Sat, Jun 19, 2004 at 10:56:49PM +0200, Andreas Barth wrote:
[   ] Choice 6: Reaffirm the current SC[needs 1:1]
  Choice 6 is titled wrong. It's not a reaffirmation of the social
  contract, it's an affirmation of a certain interpretation of the
  social contract. An affirmation of another interpretation of the
  social contract was not allowed to be put on the ballot.

 Not allowed? Really? And all this time I thought that my opinion was simply
 in a minority so small that nobody bothered making a proposal out of it! :)

See http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2004/06/msg0.html (for the
proposal, seconded by Eduard Bloch, Michael Schiansky, Marco d'Itri,
Marc Haber, John H. Robinson (IV), giving the required quorum of the
constitution), and rejected by the secretary in that form because it
also spoke about the release interval, see
http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2004/06/msg00035.html
| I am just saying that portions of this proposal, as it reads
| now, do not address the issue that the current GR addresses, and
| must needs go on another ballot, and another vote. 



Cheers,
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Re: Analysis of the ballot options

2004-06-20 Thread Andreas Barth
* Chris Cheney ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) [040620 19:40]:
 On Sun, Jun 20, 2004 at 10:59:44AM +0200, Andreas Barth wrote:
  Are you dumb or a lying? Again: Our users are served good by:
  - a current stable release
  - free software
  
  At the moment, we don't have any of them. Our stable release contains
  items which are non-free, according to your interpretation of the
  social contract (have you ever taken a look to
  /usr/share/info/gcc-295.info.gz on a woody system?).
  
  For someone who lives in the real world, and where time does matter,
  I'm convinced that we should release now, and that also our social
  contract encourages this. You may of course disagree, but please stop
  ad-hominem attacks, and malicious gossip. Thanks.

 You're real world doesn't look like mine at least unless you intend to
 release Sarge with nearly 300 RC bugs?  By the time all those RC bugs
 are fixed we could easily have removed all the non-free software from
 Debian main as well...

I consider the opinion of the release managers to be a better guide on
what blocks the release of sarge than my opinion or a glance at the RC
bug count. Please see e.g. Colin Watsons mail on
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/06/msg01086.html
|  This is not the only thing holding up sarge.
|
| It's the biggest, and crucially it's the showstopper with the greatest
| uncertainty attached to it. People who've done any release management
| know that you need to resolve the items with the greatest uncertainty as
| early as possible; it is not possible to plan otherwise. (This is why
| there's been no release plan posted lately, because we basically
| can't.)



Cheers,
Andi
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Re: Analysis of the ballot options

2004-06-20 Thread Josip Rodin
On Sun, Jun 20, 2004 at 10:07:35PM +0200, Andreas Barth wrote:
 [   ] Choice 6: Reaffirm the current SC[needs 1:1]
   Choice 6 is titled wrong. It's not a reaffirmation of the social
   contract, it's an affirmation of a certain interpretation of the
   social contract. An affirmation of another interpretation of the
   social contract was not allowed to be put on the ballot.
 
  Not allowed? Really? And all this time I thought that my opinion was simply
  in a minority so small that nobody bothered making a proposal out of it! :)
 
 See http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2004/06/msg0.html (for the
 proposal, seconded by Eduard Bloch, Michael Schiansky, Marco d'Itri,
 Marc Haber, John H. Robinson (IV), giving the required quorum of the
 constitution), and rejected by the secretary in that form because it
 also spoke about the release interval, see
 http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2004/06/msg00035.html
 | I am just saying that portions of this proposal, as it reads
 | now, do not address the issue that the current GR addresses, and
 | must needs go on another ballot, and another vote. 

Hmm, yeah, the short point appeared to have gotten sidetracked by all that
verbiage, and the promise of yearly release sounds optimistic at best.

I'd second a resolution that simply said that we acknowledge that the
meaning of the first clause of the social contract, regardless of whether
we say free according to the DFSG or free software or free monkeys,
is not set in stone and its interpretation is variable.

Another option on the same resolution would be that the interpretation
is exactly this-and-that, but with the difference that the people would
actually be voting for or against something concrete and their votes
couldn't be interpreted to mean something else than what was advertized
and what they intended.

``Eliminate or expand inaccurate references to software.'' *snicker* *sigh*

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Re: Analysis of the ballot options

2004-06-20 Thread Andreas Barth
* Josip Rodin ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) [040620 23:10]:
 On Sun, Jun 20, 2004 at 10:07:35PM +0200, Andreas Barth wrote:
  See http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2004/06/msg0.html (for the
  proposal, seconded by Eduard Bloch, Michael Schiansky, Marco d'Itri,
  Marc Haber, John H. Robinson (IV), giving the required quorum of the
  constitution), and rejected by the secretary in that form because it
  also spoke about the release interval, see
  http://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2004/06/msg00035.html
  | I am just saying that portions of this proposal, as it reads
  | now, do not address the issue that the current GR addresses, and
  | must needs go on another ballot, and another vote. 

 Hmm, yeah, the short point appeared to have gotten sidetracked by all that
 verbiage, and the promise of yearly release sounds optimistic at best.

Well, the promise was only to do regular releases. ;)
The about once a year was only a guide-line. (I know why I wrote it
this soft way, and not hard.)


 I'd second a resolution that simply said that we acknowledge that the
 meaning of the first clause of the social contract, regardless of whether
 we say free according to the DFSG or free software or free monkeys,
 is not set in stone and its interpretation is variable.
 
 Another option on the same resolution would be that the interpretation
 is exactly this-and-that, but with the difference that the people would
 actually be voting for or against something concrete and their votes
 couldn't be interpreted to mean something else than what was advertized
 and what they intended.

Well, as the current vote has already started, we can take our time
after the vote to see if we really need to make another vote. I'd like
to don't do it, but - well, I don't expect it.



Cheers,
Andi
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Re: Analysis of the ballot options

2004-06-20 Thread Eike \zyro\ Sauer
Milan Zamazal schrieb:
 so Debian shouldn't make to look itself even more foolish by making 
 and reverting changes without really good reasons.

Adult people should not be afraid of undoing bad decisions,
and We will not hide problems.

Ciao,
Eike



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Re: Analysis of the ballot options

2004-06-20 Thread Andrew Suffield
On Sun, Jun 20, 2004 at 10:59:44AM +0200, Andreas Barth wrote:
  Andreas made an ill-formed proposal which the project secretary
  rejected for this ballot, and refused all suggestions about how it
  should be properly formed. He appears to hold a grudge, I'm not sure
  why.
 
 Ah, never retain from a ad-hominem attacks, eh?

Oh, come on. That was not an argument, therefore it cannot *possibly*
be an instance of argumentum ad hominem. It was simply data, so that
people can evaluate your statements in context; I see no reason to
posit an actual argument, as any rational person should be able to
figure it out on their own.

Data which I do not like does not constitute argumentum ad
hominem. The world is full of things that you don't like, and you
don't get to reject them just because you don't like them.


I'm getting really tired of this cargo-cult approach to debate that
has appeared on the mailing lists in the past year or two. argumentum
ad hominem is precisely the set of arguments that say This argument
is wrong because of (some feature of) the person that said it. These
arguments are fallacious. Nothing else about them is
significant. Labelling everything you find objectionable as ad
hominem is pointless, because it's wrong.

It is *absolutely not the case* that anything which reflects badly on
a given person is wrong.

You only get to invoke the classical fallacies as a short-circuit to
avoid a full response when the argument proposed *is* one of the
classical fallacies. Their purpose is simply to avoid spending time
explaining the nature of the fallacy - it is assumed that everybody
involved understands why it is wrong, and you are simply pointing this
out as a substitute for the standard response. Furthermore you are
expected to explain the fallacy if somebody involved does not
understand it.

-- 
  .''`.  ** Debian GNU/Linux ** | Andrew Suffield
 : :' :  http://www.debian.org/ |
 `. `'  |
   `- --  |


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Re: Analysis of the ballot options

2004-06-20 Thread Wouter Verhelst
On Mon, Jun 21, 2004 at 12:00:58AM +0100, Andrew Suffield wrote:
 On Sun, Jun 20, 2004 at 10:59:44AM +0200, Andreas Barth wrote:
   Andreas made an ill-formed proposal which the project secretary
   rejected for this ballot, and refused all suggestions about how it
   should be properly formed. He appears to hold a grudge, I'm not sure
   why.
  
  Ah, never retain from a ad-hominem attacks, eh?
 
 Oh, come on. That was not an argument, therefore it cannot *possibly*
 be an instance of argumentum ad hominem.

Andreas didn't say argument, he said attack.

This is a tangent, though. Let's cut it.

-- 
 EARTH
 smog  |   bricks
 AIR  --  mud  -- FIRE
soda water |   tequila
 WATER
 -- with thanks to fortune


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Re: Analysis of the ballot options

2004-06-20 Thread Raul Miller
  Ah, never retain from a ad-hominem attacks, eh?

On Mon, Jun 21, 2004 at 12:00:58AM +0100, Andrew Suffield wrote:
 Oh, come on. That was not an argument, therefore it cannot *possibly*
 be an instance of argumentum ad hominem.

How is missing the point of what he said relevant?

-- 
Raul


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What your ballot should look like if you're in favor of releasing sarge

2004-06-20 Thread Steve Langasek
Much noise has been made by certain proponents of the earlier GR over
the fact that there are three very similar options on the ballot.  They
have suggested that this means the sponsors of these ballot options
don't have their act together, and are incapable of agreeing on
anything.

It is precisely because we all agree on the importance of releasing
sarge soon that we have proposed so many paths to reaching this goal.
This is an effort to build consensus, not a lack of consensus on our
part.  Debian is a large community, and it's not easy to know what the
outcome of such a vote will be before it happens.  The range of ballot
options has been provided partly in the hope that at least *one* among
these options will receive the necessary support from developers and
will put us back on the road to releasing sarge.

This means that, if your objective in voting on this GR is also to undo
the damage that has been done to our release process, you should
consider voting *multiple* options above Further Discussion, not just
one.

If you believe the changes should be reverted completely, please
consider:  if there is not support for reverting the changes at this
time, do you really want the Social Contract to stay as it is now, with
the release schedule continuing to slip, while we continue to discuss
further?

If you believe that the previous GR does represent a direction that
Debian wants to be heading in, but you also believe that releasing sarge
now with the same warts we've always had is better than waiting until
next year to release a blemishless distribution, please consider:
doesn't this GR itself show us that it's possible to change our minds
about decisions, and doesn't that mean reverting the changes for now
will still let us head down that road later?

If you believe Debian needs to handle transitions better, please
consider: isn't it important to handle *this* transition now, even if we
can't yet agree on how to handle them in the future?

I have no intention of telling people which option should be their
preferred option; indeed, I myself question whether September is far
enough away to let us release before then, because we've lost a lot of
momentum over the last month and a half while this has been hanging over
our heads.  But it is precisely because of the momentum being lost that
I think it's hard for us to do *worse* than the status quo, which is why
I still plan to vote choice 1 above the default option -- along with
choices 2, 3, 4, and 5.  If you agree with me that the release of sarge
is already long overdue, I encourage you to do likewise.

And if you have already voted, I would also remind you that the Debian
voting system does allow you to change your vote any time up until the
close of the polling period.

Thanks,
-- 
Steve Langasek
postmodern programmer


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