Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.
( The Star-Spangled Banner fanfare plays ) BREAKING NEWS! Mass resignation in Debian.
That's right, we're receiving news of several resignations: Colin Watson and Russ Allbery are leaving the technical committee (the former voted in favor of Upstart and the latter in favor of Systemd), and along with them are Joey Hess (maintainer of Alien, DebMirror, and DebHelper) and Tollef Fog Heen (a Systemd maintainer). We hope to interview some of them later. For now, we'll be speaking with Oscar Bacon and Eduardo Dvorak from CypherFacts. Good afternoon, Oscar, good afternoon, Eduardo.
How are you? Good afternoon.
(Eduardo says good afternoon)
In our previous block they were talking to us about the options available to vote. Now we would ask you to tell us about the voting method.
The voting method in Debian is very different from the ordinary one. They use the Condorcet-Schultz method to vote. Unlike the common vote where one is chosen from among several options and the one with the most votes wins, in the Condorcet voting all the options are voted but indicating an order of preference and the one that can beat all the remaining options wins. The issue is that the case of a rock, paper and scissors may arise, where one option beats the second but loses before the third. For this, the Schultz method is used to eliminate these circular dependencies and declare the strongest option the winner.
(Gonzalo tells Eduardo that there are also other characteristics within the vote.)
(Eduardo says yes. Among the about 1000 Debian developers authorized to vote, a quorum has to be reached, which is now about 47 votes, and that each option, in addition to having more votes than that quorum, its quotient between votes who prefer this option over the default option and the votes that prefer the default option over said option must be greater than 1. 1 because these options only require a simple majority, but there may be options that require special majorities, such as the changes in the constitution and the social contract that require majorities of 2: 1 or 3: 1. The vote is also secret and not mandatory, the encrypted vote with GPG is sent to a given email.)
We will be with you again. Thanks a lot. Eugenia Montes tells us that she is with Joey Hess. Go ahead Eugenia.
Hi Gonzalo. I'm with Joey Hess, one of the Debian developers who just resigned. (The rest of the conversation is in English) How are you doing?
Good.
Can you discuss the reason for your resignation?
I just made a post about this, but I'll mention it here. To avoid any misunderstandings, the reason for my resignation is NOT systemd. The init file that Debian chooses in 2014 won't matter for at least three years. The reason is how decisions are being made. For example: In this bug, Ian (Jackson) mandated that the Technical Committee decide on a matter concerning libpam-systemd dependencies, even though the maintainers of the packages involved don't disagree. Moreover, there's progress being made on libpam-systemd that the committee ignored. And furthermore, the issues involved (which are incredibly complex) were "resolved" in a debate of only three days. I don't know what you think , but this doesn't seem like a committee with a sound decision-making process.
And what did those on the committee say?
Russ (Allbery) and Don (Armstrong) tell me that they didn't actually decide anything and that the decision was about clarifying that the Technical Committee was consulted and that it didn't decide anything. I think they're just putting a stamp on Ian's words, when that ended SO well last time.
Returning to the election Did you vote?
Of course. I voted for option 4. These things are not decided in a general resolution because one bullshit of law cannot be fixed with another bullshit of law. Ian is doing anything with the Debian constitution.
Thank you very much Joey. A pleasure.
You're welcome.
(Going back to speaking in Spanish) We returned to the center.
Very good Ramón. We move on to music with Palega Rupenian.
Subidubidu, how are you? and you? and you? What about you, and everyone who watches this show? There is an imposing tofaà of field jingles starting with number 5 with this little song by Rodney Zumarán.
(It is a spot to irritate more than one Argentine. In this it says "Raulito and Ian Jackson have gotten very angry, because option three and M * n * m are always first")
And in number 4 the answer to number 5 made by Tomás Berreta (nothing to do with the former president of the same name)
( Uruguayan copy of the previous ad . This one says, "We have to change the script. End this comedy. Option two is elected. Or goodbye to the Debian distro. Voice plus You. In November, option two.")
Entering the podium with the position number treeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees.
(It is the music of «Yo Tengo Fe» by Palito Ortega. Between palms everyone sings «I have faith, one will win. I have faith, joy will come. I have faith, it will be a reality, the world of sanity that is already beginning to wake up.")
Nor will you stop clapping with the position number dossssssssssssss.
( For option 2 , » s/Chile/Debian/ . The joy is coming»).
AND IN THE NUMBER ONE MUCH LESS. THE JINGLE NUMBER ONE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES ...
( This Independent Party jingle in the style of "We Will Rock You" with a full rap in favor of option 4, and the rage of an OS X Yosemite user upon learning that third-party SSD support was removed .)
And that's it. Thanks a lot. Chau Chau chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.
Thank you very much Palega. We are back with the war correspondent Gabriela Cantero. Go ahead Gabriela.
Good evening. We're at the stadium where the match that decided the default init system in Debian was once held. The hooligans are aware of the vote and are chanting the jingles of their respective options, along with other chants. Right now, they've switched from chants to aggression. We'll raise the microphone. ( This is similar to this video . Central fans are anti-systemd, Boca Juniors fans are pro-systemd.)
Excuse me Grabiela for interrupting you, but the results have just come in right now. We are with Oscar Bacon and Eduardo Dvorak. Can you know the winning option?
(Oscar and Eduardo are hanging their heads in shame) The winning option was number 4, whose full description is: "The Debian project asks its members to be considerate when proposing General Resolutions, given that the process of these RGs can be detrimental, regardless of the outcome of the vote. Regarding the subject of this vote, the project states that the procedures for decision-making and conflict resolution are working adequately and therefore a General Resolution is not required." This option won by a landslide, with 176 votes more than option 1 (packages could not require a specific init), 100 votes more than option 2 (support for multiple inits is recommended but not mandatory), 173 votes more than option 3 (packages CAN require a specific init), and 263 votes more than option 5 (further discussion). Option 2 came in second with a lead of 180 votes over option 1, 79 votes over option 3, and 267 votes over option 5. Option 3 came in third with a lead of 80 votes over option 1 and 120 votes over option 5. Option 1 came in fourth with a lead of 29 votes over option 5. And option 5 came in last with no lead over the other options.
And why is the head so low?
(They tell Eduardo this, and he replies that the result contradicted their predictions and that they therefore apologize to the viewers and the developers . He says that the main cause of the error was having conducted their surveys on Debian users and not on its developers, which is why it showed a virtual tie between options 1 and 2. However, option 1 received a disastrous number of votes, and option 2 came in close by several votes.)
Okay. Those things usually happen.
(The fanfare of the chorus of Stars and Stripes Forever plays) LAST MOMENTOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
We are in contact with Ramón Clericó in England. Ramon?
Yes Gonzalo, we are at the press conference where Ian Jackson comes out to speak.
(The following speech says it in English)
Debian developers, good evening. I have summoned them to say the following: First of all I have to acknowledge the defeat of option 1. The results of the vote were favorable to option 4 which says that a general resolution is not required. I thank all the developers who supported our option, as well as the developers who voted for the other options. It may not have been an ideal time to call for a General Resolution, but I do not agree. I hope that when time passes and another controversy like this arises, time will give us reason.
(Applause and cheers from supporters.)
Secondly, I'm here to confirm my resignation from the Technical Committee , after 16 years of membership. I truly admit that I should have resigned after the committee vote, but I had regained my composure. (Laughter from the audience) But this time I'm serious. I believe my personality shouldn't represent the 30-40% of the project that agrees with me and that should be represented on the Committee. Furthermore, I'm tired and want to dedicate more time to development. So, we'll stay in touch.
There you have it, Ian Jackson just resigned from the Technical Committee, as did Russ Allbery and Colin Watson. New members are expected to be elected in the coming days. We come back with you.
Thanks Ramón. This has been it. Have a good night and may democracy rest in peace.