[opensuse-project] Open Letter to openSUSE

Dear openSUSE members, enthusiasts and everyone else, I am writing this lines to express my indignation towards something that was published on official communication from the project in the following news[1] article, and I quote (ipsis verbis): "We also heard that GNOME 3.6 would have packages as soon as it is released, and GNOME 2 fork Mate and the GNOME Shell alternative Cinnamon were both packaged and built for openSUSE 12.2 as well!" Regarding this I would like to state the following: 1) I was for the most the person involved with the packages in question; From which Cinnamon was actually in Factory for a few days and then I called off due to an upstream move (the UP branches) that left a brilliant nightmare for downstreamers. The software integration with GNOME infra-structure was broken, was buggy and not working. This was something at the time I couldn't fix and no one was available to help me, so I called off the packages from Factory. For this I was accused by a person with most likely know-how to help fix things (but did nothing) of trying to DoS the release team. 2) For MATE to be accepted by the community I would have to find co-maintainers; in 3 public calls I had zero replies. On a private talk with Raymond he said he could help maintain them. 3) It's hard to get help; Alan Clark and 'his people' representing the openSUSE Board made a public claim for me to leave the project, and shortly after asked the community to ignore 'problematic and poisonous people'. This clearly makes me 'problematic' and 'poisonous'. So in 2) the outcome was really no surprise. 4) Alan Clark and some of the Board members are fully responsible for the expulsion of a member without existing a single document or precedent that assigns such 'powers' to the Board. This happened after I've appointed someone for the Board; 3 days after he was expelled. The process was never clear to the community, this triggered me to revoke membership, as I considered it an abuse commited on my behalf and other members (the afterall represents the members). Also another point to reinforce revoking of membership was the tyrannical demand that all members should be forced to vote. This seemed mainly motivated to cut down administrative tasks for people controlling the active memberships. So much 'brilliant' people and that's the best they can come with? 5) Before any of the previous, my credibility was mined by a few people on the Marketing team; despite I actually have some skills in Marketing[2] (there's no need to disclose the full document, as the current proves enough), I was always treated badly inside Marketing Team. I can recall my first and only OSC(2010), in which all offers from me to help were left without an answer. If it wasn't for Sirko, I would be for the most abandoned in the Hotel watching Nurembergs beautiful Autumn leaves falling from the trees. I can recall the former lead of the Marketing Team trying to punk me and humiliate me in public discrediting my academical skills and recommending I should listen to Paul Cutler (Novell Employee at the time, but not much of a contributor either to Marketing or anything else I've stumbled with). I got out of that Marketing team all bruised up and wanting to call for blood. 6) Also long before this and the first time I really saw the real face of openSUSE; Michael Meeks tried to censor me and remove me from the openSUSE planet after I posted an article on planet that plainly from a Marketing point of view it would be interesting the rise of a new brand against one established for over 10 years (Libre Office vs Open Office). This was purely something I wanted to do for an academical paper. I got to know it was Meeks shortly after by someone who was highly placed in openSUSE hierarchy. This was by the phone, as such since all phone calls (originating or targeting) in Portugal are recorded and saved for 7 years by the operator. This is demanded by law, so If it wasn't really Meeks, my apologies, that was what I was told and I can get a court order for a transcript of that phone call to prove it. This was the first time I saw openSUSE was neither transparent, neither free and this by itself seemed that it works closely to a cartel. There are a lot more of fun stories, full of conspiracy theories and others. It's with great surprise that I see something that I worked on, specially after all of this, which all public calls to the 'community' were left unanswered being now brought up in official communition. Is this an involuntary statement that openSUSE as a community is really broken and that it now needs to pick up stuff done randomly by people to show something done? Specially from someone you as a community bruised up so much? There are a lot of people I admire in openSUSE because of their skills or because on how they handle stuff; I know, as always it's always my fault, because it can never be yours, but this to say that YOU people fired the first shells to my backyard, the rest was just maybe an imature answer from my side (rude sometimes), but to me it's still an answer to the brutality I was subjected in countless ocasions. How could one trust anyone after the points above? It is strangely how you dare to mention MATE packages when for 1 month I abandoned them, no one did actually nothing for them; no one stepped to co-maintain them, no one cared to help improve them for Factory, no one even cared to have them accepted for all I know. Shame on you people... Nelson Marques (I don't hide, neither I have shameful on my name) [1] - http://news.opensuse.org/2013/01/23/opensuse-12-2-brought-to-you-by-an-extre... [2] - http://susepaste.org/3322711 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner@opensuse.org

Hi Nelson, I'll just reply to the first part (about MATE / Cinnamon packages) here. The other points you raise seem to be about issues between different people (including you), and I feel it's better to handle that privately first -- I'm happy to discuss this with you, if you want. Le vendredi 25 janvier 2013, à 19:18 +0000, Nelson Marques a écrit :
Dear openSUSE members, enthusiasts and everyone else,
I am writing this lines to express my indignation towards something that was published on official communication from the project in the following news[1] article, and I quote (ipsis verbis):
"We also heard that GNOME 3.6 would have packages as soon as it is released, and GNOME 2 fork Mate and the GNOME Shell alternative Cinnamon were both packaged and built for openSUSE 12.2 as well!"
Regarding this I would like to state the following:
1) I was for the most the person involved with the packages in question; From which Cinnamon was actually in Factory for a few days and then I called off due to an upstream move (the UP branches) that left a brilliant nightmare for downstreamers. The software integration with GNOME infra-structure was broken, was buggy and not working. This was something at the time I couldn't fix and no one was available to help me, so I called off the packages from Factory. For this I was accused by a person with most likely know-how to help fix things (but did nothing) of trying to DoS the release team.
2) For MATE to be accepted by the community I would have to find co-maintainers; in 3 public calls I had zero replies. On a private talk with Raymond he said he could help maintain them.
[...]
It is strangely how you dare to mention MATE packages when for 1 month I abandoned them, no one did actually nothing for them; no one stepped to co-maintain them, no one cared to help improve them for Factory, no one even cared to have them accepted for all I know. Shame on you people...
I think you're reading too much in this news story: people who wrote this article have worked hard to relate what happened during 12.2 development, and around its release and clearly can't follow everything. I guess they've heard about the Cinnamon and MATE packages, because it's something you talked about in several places (on mailing lists, irc and probably in blog posts too). But they might have not seen the fact that they were abandoned: was it properly announced? And when? As far as I can tell, you worked on MATE packages at least until November, and it could well be that the marketing team didn't look at what happened later than that: after all, this was an article about how the release went, so it was about events around September... As usual, I think it's better to assume that people meant well, and in this case, they were probably simply lacking the right information. Cheers, Vincent -- Les gens heureux ne sont pas pressés. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner@opensuse.org
participants (2)
-
Nelson Marques
-
Vincent Untz