Red Hat and Fedora Working Groups

[Jared K. Smith]

On Fri, Oct 4, 2013 at 2:23 PM, Matthew Miller <mattdm at fedoraproject.org>wrote:

> On Fri, Oct 04, 2013 at 03:14:27PM +0000, "Jóhann B. Guðmundsson" wrote:
> > Why should the community participate in this when it turns out that
> > the the whole WG and the next proposal is nothing but an utter and
> > total sheninagan on RH behalf as came apparent on last FESCO meeting
>
> Jóhann, you're taking one out-of-context quote from one FESCo member,
> reading too much into it, and building an alarmist story around it.
>
> This is absolutely a real community process. Red Hat members of the working
> groups can make their merit-based cases the same way as anyone else, and if
> they can't show that merit to the community, they don't get a special trump
> card. They will have to find another way to advance their cause.
>

Let me add a few words here as well.  I'm of the same opinion as Matthew
here -- I think Jóhann is reading too much into a unfortunately worded
quote.  (And, based on Jóhann's recent behavior, he seems to have an axe to
grind with Red Hat.)

I'd like to state for the record that while I was the Fedora Project
Leader, Red Hat never once told me what to do as the FPL or exercised any
undue influence on what Fedora should or shouldn't be doing.  Of course,
they watched with interest to see what was happening in Fedora, and various
Red Hat engineers added new features to Fedora along the way, and quite a
few Red Hat employees took part on the Fedora Board and FESCo and FAmSCo
and various other SIGs -- but I can state unequivocally that I never tried
to force Fedora's hand, or did I see any sort of underhanded behavior or
grand conspiracy to which Jóhann refers.

I'm sorry Jóhann, but I can't sit here and watch you make those kinds of
accusations without sharing what I saw and experienced while I was an
insider at Red Hat.  It's not helpful to the Fedora community to continue
with these baseless accusations.

Let me even be a little more blunt here:  I don't think Fedora could thrive
without the support and help that Red Hat (and, by extension, it's
employees) provide.  It could probably survive, but it would only be
limping along.  In that same manner, I don't think Red Hat could thrive the
way it has without the great work that Fedora does.  For better or worse,
the Fedora community and Red Hat need each other.  I don't see any easy way
for them to go their separate ways without damaging both sides.

(For the record, I no longer work for Red Hat, have nothing tangible to
gain by Red Hat's success, but still hold them in high esteem based on my
time working there.)

--
Jared Smith
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