🚀 go-pugleaf

hjb@netcom.com (Hwa-Jin Bae) writes:

>>I don't quite follow what your suggesting here.  You think Cygnus
>>should be prohibited from stating facts like they are the maintainers
>>for certain packages?  Or else what?  They be sued?  On what grounds?
>>Or else they loose maintainership?  Wouldn't this hurt the goals of
>>the FSF?  

>it would be better if cygnus did not claim to be "officially recognized" by
>GNU/FSF to do the work of supporting those packages.  GNU/FSF is better if
>they do not give out endorsements to particular groups.

The FSF has, since the early days, delegated certain people to be the
maintainers of certain software.  Generally, the maintainer is
originally the author of the program.  Sometimes the author chooses to
stop maintaining the code for some reason, and the FSF chooses a new
maintainer.  (Of course, the process is not as formal as I make it
sound).

Now, Cygnus is the current maintainer of a few FSF packages.  Not
coincidentally, Cygnus is also the author of most of those packages
(Cygnus did not originally write gdb).  In fact, in all cases I can
think of, the actual people who did the programming still work for
Cygnus.

So you say, first, that it would be better if Cygnus did not claim to
be the FSF recognized maintainer of these packages.  But, Cygnus
really is the official maintainer.  Those net releases that you see on
prep.ai.mit.edu were put there by Cygnus employees.  Any patches that
came in from the net were installed in the sources by Cygnus
employees.  Are you suggesting that even though Cygnus does this
work, which is not directly paid for by any Cygnus customer (it comes
out of overhead), Cygnus should keep it secret?  I'm the official
maintainer of UUCP for the FSF.  Are you suggesting that I should not
put that on my resume?  What is the difference between the two
suggestions, assuming I have stated them correctly?

Secondly, you say that the FSF is ``better,'' in some unspecified
fashion, if it does not endorse particular groups.  Who, then, should
maintain g++, gas, etc.?  Should the FSF take them away from Cygnus
merely because Cygnus has had the temerity to be a group rather than
an individual?
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