Home opinion-and-analysis Open Sauce Keeping 1000 devs focused: new Debian leader speaks

Author's Opinion

The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of iTWire.

Have your say and comment below.

Get all your tech news delivered to your mail box five days a week
iTWire UPDATE - it's FREE!


Ten days back, the new leader of the Debian GNU/Linux project, Stefano Zacchiroli, began his term as the only elected leader of a free software project. But that's not the only thing that makes Debian unique in the FOSS space.


The project has well over 1000 developers from all corners of the globe and, despite the arguments and debates that figure on its many mailing lists, still puts together a distribution that is top quality and caters to more architectures than any other.
Stefano Zacchiroli
Zacchiroli, a post-doctoral fellow at a university in Paris, thus has a fairly tough task ahead as he begins his term. He took some time out to speak to iTWire about his plans for the year.

Congratulations on being elected. What does it feel like to be the leader of a group that has 1000+ developers and about 2000 opinions?

Thanks... but I don't think your numbers are fair. We do have different opinions on specific subjects sometimes, but not (yet) more than one per DD (Debian developer). In fact, I find that having different opinions and using democracy and do-ocracy to face them is one of the most interesting and distinguishing features of the Debian project.

Back to your question, my main feelings are: being honoured by the trust that others DDs have shown in me plus some excitement about the possibility of helping them enjoy their participation in Debian more. (There is also) a tiny, teeny little bit of fear over the responsibility.

RECRUITMENT & RETENTION REPORT 2013

HIRE OR FIRE? BUY OR BUILD

2013 is well underway and Australian companies need to know whether they should invest in IT skills training or pay a premium for the people they need.

If you want to know which choices are being made in your sector, what skills are hard to find, which sectors intend to hire or fire and where the IT spend is going, this free report is must have.

GET YOUR REPORT NOW

Sam Varghese

website statistics

A professional journalist with decades of experience, Sam for nine years used DOS and then Windows, which led him to start experimenting with GNU/Linux in 1998. Since then he has written widely about the use of both free and open source software, and the people behind the code. His personal blog is titled Irregular Expression.

Connect

http://bs.serving-sys.com/BurstingPipe/adServer.bs?cn=tf&c=19&mc=imp&pli=5460041&PluID=0&ord=[2000]&rtu=-1