non-disclosure of infrastructure problem a management issue?

[Bj ø rn Tore Sund]

I have been advised that this is a better list than fedora-list to send this
email to.

It has now been a full week since the first announcement that Fedora had
"infrastructure problems" and to stop updating systems. Since then there has
been two updates to the announcement, none of which have modified the "don't
update" advice and noen of which has been specific as to the exact nature of
the problems. At one point we received a list of servers, but not services,
which were back up and running.

The University of Bergen has 500 linux clients running Fedora. We average
one reinstall/fresh install per day, often doing quite a lot more. Installs
and reinstalls has had to stop completely, nightly updates have stopped, and
until the nature of the problem is revealed we don't even know for certain
whether it is safe for our IT staff to type admin passwords to our
(RHEL-based, for the most part) servers from these work stations.

Sometimes unfortunate events happen beyond anyone's control. We understand
this as well as anyone. We trust the assurances that the infrastructure team
is working hard on resolving the matter and are greatful to them for the job
they do. So far nothing that has happened with this issue has reflected
poorly on them.

Sadly, the same cannot be said about the Management of the Fedora project.
Their choice of complete non-disclosure is enough to eradicate any and all
confidence that Fedora is a trustworthy platform for Linux installations.
What information they have released has been deliberately vague and,
frankly, useless. For a day or two to secure things this may be a workable
strategy. For a full week, not giving the community participants any chance
whatsoever to protect themselves from threats indicated but not specified?
This is poor management and poor judgement and reflects very badly not only
on the Fedora project but on Fedora's RedHat sponsor as well. The issue is
more than serious enough and has gone on for more than long enough that
someone higher up the scale should have stepped in a long time ago and made
sure that all relevant info was released to the community.

We strongly encourage both the Fedora management and RedHat as a Fedora
sponsor to immediately release any and all information relating to the
current infrastructure problems.

Regards,

-BT, linux client architect, University of Bergen
-- 
Bjørn Tore Sund       Phone: 555-84894   Email:   bjorn.sund at it.uib.no
IT department         VIP:   81724       Support: http://bs.uib.no
Univ. of Bergen

When in fear and when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.