Re: Cygwin/XFree86 - No longer associated with XFree86.org

[Harold L Hunt II <huntharo at msu dot edu>]

Egbert,

Egbert Eich wrote:

> Harold,
>
> I find it sad that you had to make this decision.
> I've just been absent for a little more than two weeks and
> was unable to commit patches - look what came out of it.

Egbert, I am sorry, I want to make it absolutely clear that my raising 
the issue with XFree86.org and subsequent decision had nothing to do 
with you.  You were actually a great help to me, I appreciate the work 
that you did with me very much.  There was a larger problem here... one 
that had nothing to do with you.

> I understand that the level of frustration among contributors
> has risen to a point that people are starting to use bad words.
> I've tried to get support from individual core team members
> for giving you commit rights. After I was unable to do so (maybe
> I asked the wrong ones) I decided to no longer persue the issue.
> None of the initiatives I've made so far have been accepted.

I appreciate that Egbert.  That really gets to the heart of the matter: 
this isn't about cvs commit access, this is about the arbitrary, 
subjective, and unresponsive manner in which the project is being managed.

> I don't understand why people cannot deal with issues on the
> pragmatic level by looking at how one can best distribute
> the workload so that the burdeon on each individual volunteer
> is reduced.

I really wish they could have seen that too.

> The discussion always turns to who owes what to whom. This is
> the wrong question. All or most of us are volunteers. Therefore
> noone owes anything to anybody.
> I get more and more the impression that David is working on
> narrowing down the scope of XFree86. 
> There are alternatives in sight and I hope something will be 
> in place before too long that will again serve a place where
> people interested in X can meet and work together.

Yes, I am beginning to work with some other developers who have left 
XFree86.org as well.  It is so unfortunate that XFree86.org is pushing 
away developers one-by-one, only to assemble the same group elsewhere. 
That is a pointless waste of time; that sort of thing should not have to 
happen.

I was a little surprised too to see that my request was interpreted as 
being owed something :)  Jeez, not only is the process of getting cvs 
commit access undefined, it is a veritable mine field; you cannot 
possibly ask in a humble enough manner for their taste.

Anyhow, I want to reiterate again that I enjoy working with you Egbert 
and that I hope we continue to work together in the future.

Thanks for your input,

Harold