Fedora.next in 2014 -- Big Picture and Themes

[Miloslav Trmač]

On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 2:57 PM, Matthew Miller <mattdm at fedoraproject.org>wrote:

> > This doesn't mean I'm against doing Big Exciting New Things in general
> > or Fedora.next in particular, but I do want to stand up for the value of
> > just keeping your head down (hah, I know, Adam, practice what you
> > preach) and doing good, dull engineering work. With your pocket
> > protector firmly in place.
>
> This is all very convincing. But you also sent me a convincing message the
> other week about Fedora's place on the innovation curve and, basically, the
> difficulty of doing all that good dull work while being innovative. Stop
> convincing me in different directions -- my head will fall off!
>
> Or, in seriousness, because I don't think they're *necessarily* in direct
> conflict, what do you think we should do about all of the above? Our
> mission
> and branding, including our foundations, tend to steer away from the dull
> and towards new shiny. In fact, whenever we do something that could be
> characterized as head-down plodding forward progress instead of a bold
> leap,
> we hear *quite a bit* of sarcasm about the four foundations in the online
> chatter.
>

So I recently had to carefully reread the foundations, and I was surprised
to find the "First" foundation is not nearly as focused on timing as is
generally assumed:

> we provide the latest _in stable and robust_, useful, and powerful free
software in our Fedora distribution.
(emphasis mine)

So, "new shiny"?  Yes, please.  "Bold leap"?  Uncertain.  "Bleeding edge"?
Definitely not.

(It could be argued that when the written from or the Foundations and their
common understanding differs, it's the common understanding that is
correct.  I suppose the right way to go about it would be to dig out the
archives of the discussions and Board minutes from that time to accurately
understand the consensus of _that_ time, as opposed to the _current_ common
understanding, which is, I think, primarily formed by the above-referenced
sarcasm.)
    Mirek
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