init system GR

Mon, 23 Dec 2019 23:24:44 +0100

finally – the third call for vote has already gone out – I took the time to cast my vote in the debian init system GR (General Resolution), the vote of debian members about the project's further course with regard to init systems.

for those you care about others' opinions before the poll closes: I voted H > G = D > F = E > FD > B > A, & here's why (note that I don't claim that this is necessarily 100% logically consistent):

H is a combination of guillem's principles, which I share, & ian's rather detailed guidance on how to proceed in the spirit of enabling a compromise & make progress together. that makes most sense to me.

G is guillem's proposal with his original principles & a short guidance section that explains why no more detailled guidance makes sense. on the one hand, I prefer more guidance in order to help e.g. the policy editors (that's why I ranked H higher), on the other hand, I still agree with the text & think that it could work, at least if we concentrate on cooperation.

D is ian's proposal with the detailed processes; since I liked them in option H, I still like them even without the principles, just a bit less :)

why did I rank G & D equally? I guess that was basically my gut telling me to do so … in any way, I prefer H & G & D clearly more than the other options:

F & E are the "extreme" positions in this vote ("focus on sytemd" vs. "all init systems must work"). I'm not a big fan of of either of them, as I favour a future which gives everyone their space within debian. still I ranked them over FD (further discussion) because a clear direction seems more useful to me than dragging this discussion on. & I ranked them equally because personally I could live with both of them (yes, init systems are not a matter totally close to my heart …).

B & A ended up below FD in my ballot (i.e. "better no result than this one") because I don't see what new they would bring to the ballot, not already covered in the other options; I find them a bit hard to read (as in "what consequences would they really have?"); & I much dislike the mingling of NMUs (non-maintainer uploads) with a GR about init systems in option A.

finally, thanks to all the people who worked hard to prepare this GR & did the work to come up with the various options; let's see if I change my vote (& this blog post) in the remaining days; & in any case, we'll soon (after Friday 2019-12-27 23:59:59 UTC) see the results, first on the secretary's voting page & on the debian-vote mailing list.