The Forgotten "F": A Tale of Fedora's Foundations

[Matthew Miller]

On Mon, Apr 21, 2014 at 08:36:55AM -0400, Stephen Gallagher wrote:
> To make things clear: I'm personally closer to the second camp than
> the first. In fact, in keeping with the subject of this email, I'd
> like to suggest a fifth Foundation, one to ultimately supersede all
> the rest: "Functional". Here's a straw-man phrasing of this proposal:

I think the idea of a "functional" foundation is worth talking about, but
I'd like to walk it _way_ back from this "one ring to rule the rest" idea
before we even have that conversation.

The four foundations represent our _core values_, and while we might
disagree about their relative balance and particularly about the wording
used in their descriptions, I think they *do* represent who we are and what
we strive to be.

In fact, I think what you are proposing is a stronger wording of the
existing "features" foundation. ("Features represents our commitment to
excellence.") Putting friends, features, and first in servitude to that
doesn't feel right.

I'd rather strengthen the wording around "features" to clarify that this
means "functional" too, and isn't just another way of saying "first", which
of course has its own foundation. We can improve the wording around
"freedom" as well, but, actually, I think most important is to clarify the
understanding that sometimes these features pull in different directions,
and that Fedora overall is a balance.

-- 
Matthew Miller    --   Fedora Project    --    <mattdm at fedoraproject.org>
                                  "Tepid change for the somewhat better!"