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List:       gentoo-sparc
Subject:    Re: [gentoo-sparc] making ferris mccormick a dev
From:       Jason Wever <weeve () gentoo ! org>
Date:       2004-02-28 20:59:59
Message-ID: Pine.LNX.4.58.0402281324150.14222 () stargazer ! weeve ! org
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On Sat, 28 Feb 2004, Ferris McCormick wrote:

> Jason,
>   Thanks for asking, and yes, I am interested.  I have never considered
> myself to be a "power user"; I'm just interested in lots of different
> things.

Cool :)

>   As to questions: Mostly along the lines of what I could contribute,
> how to do so, and so on.  And there must be some administrative matters.

As for contributing, you've shown ability to troubleshoot problems well, 
even if it doesn't involve a solution.  This is definitely a skill we look 
for as helps when working on bugs and in a lot of scenarios that come up 
when working on SPARC.  In addition to SPARC, you'd be able to  contribute 
to any areas of Gentoo that interest you, from particular  packages you 
are interested in helping maintain (either for sparc or in  general) to 
the Documentation team or Developer relations.  For a list of what's 
available you can view the various Gentoo Projects via 
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/index.xml?showlevel=1 (if you haven't done 
so already).  

Administratively, there is a two-week mentoring process for a "developer 
in training" to work with an existing developer to become aware of Gentoo 
policies and be shown the ropes.  There is also a quiz at the end before 
officially being a developer which you can view at
http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/recruiters/index.xml#doc_chap4.  This 
also provides more details on the mentoring process.

>   Concerns are the usual, I suppose.  First is time requirements-- after
> all, I do have a "day job":  I already wear two hats as head of R&D and
> as Corporate Counsel (yes, I really am a lawyer) for my small business
> employer (Alpha Informatics), and my time for other administrative work
> is limited.  So I'd contribute here as possible, but not an unlimited
> amount.

Most of us are in the same position, and Gentoo is something we do in our 
spare time.  We don't really have any time requirements for the project so 
whatever you feel you can put in that doesn't interfere with your regular 
job and personal life is fine by us.  Also if you feel you need to take 
some time off for a while because you won't have the time for Gentoo, but 
may again in 6 months, that works too.  

>   Second concerns conflict of interest and attribution.  I cannot see
> where a conflict of interest between Gentoo & my employer would arise,
> but it is not inconceivable.  In such an event, employment wins out.
> The attribution concern goes as follows:  If I am a developer, it is
> conceivable that such a position would be advantageous in our business
> (as in reinforcing credibility).  I would suppose that making such a
> statement if the need arose would cause no problems, but you should
> be aware of the possibility.

I think a lot of us that are in 9-5 tech jobs may have similar agreements 
with our employers and this is understandable.

>   Third is an xfree-ish issue.  I have kept out of this ongoing discussion
> (except for one private communication) and am trying hard to keep on
> doing that.  But full disclosure requires me to say that I think the
> pro-xfree camp has the better argument; if for no other reasons, (1)
> the xfree license is itself pretty reasonable; and (2) since Gentoo
> distributes source and the xfree source satisfies the license, I don't
> see the problem.  Gentoo does not require anyone to use xfree... (well,
> I could make the argument; especially if a GPL compatible version of
> xfree is available from Gentoo for anyone who needs it....)  Enough of
> that; you should know my opinion.  But since this is not my area of
> legal expertise, I am not in a position to give an informed opinion.

I haven't been keeping close track of the thread myself, but from my 
understanding, the reason Gentoo choose not to work with the new XFree 
license was due to the changes supposedly not allowing GPL'd works to be 
compiled against it.  But since IANAL and legal-ese tends to make my head 
hurt, I should probably state that this is all my understanding and 
interpretation and not necessarily Gentoo's.  If you are looking for a 
more official reasoning, you might try talking to Donnie Berkholz 
<spyderous@gentoo.org>.
 
>   So, this is an almost unqualified yes, and thanks.  What next?

Next would be the mentoring process.  You can get an idea of what we're 
looking for from the developer quiz mentioned above.  I'd be happy to be 
your mentor, or you are welcome to pick from any of the other SPARC 
developers (there's a list at http://sparc.gentoo.org).  

Most of the SPARC developers spend a lot of time in #gentoo-sparc on 
irc.freenode.net, so if you want to get a feel for the team and see what 
we do that's the best place to do it.  Often times we find this good for 
the mentoring process as questions can be more readily answered (if we're 
around) as well as a good number of regular Gentoo developers being 
accessible in #gentoo-dev.


Cheers,
- -- 
Jason Wever
Gentoo/Sparc Co-Team Lead
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