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Developers quit PCLinuxOS to start Unity Linux


spinynorman
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Internal issues have rocked the world of PCLinuxOS, with numerous developers quitting the project. The issues appear to have started when project lead, Bill Reynolds (Texstar), took a year-long break from running the distribution and left the distro's primary system administrator, Solis, in charge. Without input from the project founder, development of PCLinuxOS 2009 by the community continued but just before release, Solis halted it so that Reynolds could overview it. The release was then delayed two weeks while it was finalised. It appears that many developers were not happy with the way this was handled and have consequently left the project.

 

More at DistroWatch.

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So basically they're complaining because, instead of Texstar giving is input (which I'm sure would have been the same) during the year, he gave it after coming back from hiatus but before the release. Either way he would have had the same issues, I'm sure, and it being delayed for two weeks is nothing to get so worked up over.

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I think if he had been involved during the year, the issues wouldn't be there. It's more to do with the fact he disappeared for so long, and then came back and wanted to review everything and say about the things he didn't like. In a way, they have every right to be unhappy about it, since he wasn't there for the last year for any involvement in the project.

 

For me, if you weren't there and involved in the last year, you shouldn't expect to just come back and pick up where you left off. The mistake was that someone gave him that opportunity. Either way, two weeks delay is nothing, and we don't know the ins and outs of what was said. He could have slated it badly about what he didn't like which doesn't do anything for the morale of the people who've spent lots of time and hard effort putting it together when he wasn't there in the first place.

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Weird story. Weird that the big guy Texstar would disappear for a year with no contact, weird that he'd come back to resume control just before a release (as if he'd ever be 100% happy with everything), and then very weird that the (female) 2nd-in-command would come out with comments like:

Only problem was the 'boys'.
Women versed in linux packaging (rpm) are welcome to contact me

Not a particularly brilliant set of pointers in how to motivate volunteer developers... :unsure:

 

Still, maybe the successor distro will have a catchier name...

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Ah... it's much more than that, it seems. Follow the blog of the current PCLOS site admin, and you will understand:

http://csolisphotography.blogspot.com/2009...s-of-linux.html

It was pretty obvious that Texstar had a very long break from the project, and to me it's equally obvious that what he did just before the new official release was very unsubtle and undemocratic.

PCLinuxOS is dead, as far as I'm concerned. There might be some similarities with the Kanotix/Sidux split a few years ago, but there the disagreements were mainly on a technical basis, and not all that crap that's going on in PCLOS.

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Very interesting information. My soon-to-arrive PCLinuxOS discs will be treasured collector's items.

 

Will the personalities moving to the newly named Linux distro be changed into "new" personalities to match the new distro? I very much doubt it. In my opinion there are too many Linux distros already and illustrious talent is spread too thinly. I would like to see those developers join an already established distro that is compatible with their mindset.

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Has anyone bothered to ask WHY Texstar went on hiatus? Perhaps he had a very valid reason for doing so. Maybe "real life" issues needed to be taken care of.

 

Perhaps him coming back right before release was simply to ensure the released product was up to his standards, and when it wasn't, he wanted changes.

 

It is his project. He gave heads up he was going on hiatus, entrusted leading of the project to someone else until his return. Everyone seems to know he was going to return, yet they are all surprised by it and his intent to release a product that is up to his standards? The very standards that created the distribution in the first place?

 

Sounds like a bunch of whiny b*****s to me. If it only took 2 weeks to make the changes, I have a feeling they weren't really that big of a deal, but a few sour grapes turned into a bad box of wine (as if boxed wine is ever good), and all the dev's were drinking from it.

 

Additionally, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if some of these dev's had a personal issue with being headed up by someone of the opposite sex.

Edited by tyme
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(as if boxed wine is ever good)

actually it would be better to store wine in boxes than in bottles, especially the ones with natural corks are bad, second best would be wine with screwtops. Over here (the netherlands) slowly quality wines are now switching from cork to screwtop and even a few to boxes.  ;)

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This is exactly why I hope Mandriva survives financially (and why I dislike Ubuntu, which is completely dependant on the financial goodwill of one rich sponsor and at the same time did hurt Mandriva severely), the problem with smaller distros is their success or failure is too linked to single people so you never know how long they will be around for.

Mandriva is still the only desktop focused distro, that doesn't depend on the efforts or financial goodwill of only a single person.

Edited by tux99
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I really know very litte about PCLinuxOS - only what I have read from a few threads on the Mandriva forums. Also, you know they say that hindsight is 20-20.

 

So as an outsider, this is what I think. Texstar should have let the distro go as the developers and community had developed it. If it was not well received, then he should have stepped in with his ideas. If he does not like the current iteration that the developers created, then he should apply his ideas to the next release. Even so, he could still upset the developers if he takes off in a different direction going forward.

 

When Texstar decided to take his hiatus, he should have clearly spelled out what would happen when he came back (that is *assuming* he did not clearly spell this out). That way the developers could not claim to be blindsided (if they were).

 

My 2 cents. :puter:

 

P.S. The 'PC' emoticon (:pc:) does not work.

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Ah... it's much more than that, it seems. Follow the blog of the current PCLOS site admin, and you will understand:

http://csolisphotography.blogspot.com/2009...s-of-linux.html

That blog entry has now disappeared. Pity, I would like to have read that to get another perspective. Well here we go again, another fork... :unsure: Edited by {BBI}Nexus{BBI}
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That blog entry has now disappeared. Pity, I would like to have read that to get another perspective. Well here we go again, another fork... :unsure:

 

I read some of the other posts of the blog, getting the impression that she(?) can't be very old (references to living with daddy), although that means nothing with regards to technical skills, it would explain the rather immature post, that now has been deleted.

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Sometimes, people up to the ages of 30 are still living with Mummy and Daddy. Not that it's a bad thing, considering the economic climate right now and the financial crisis we have. Houses are so damn expensive.

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