FPL steps down: what's the real story?

[Paul W. Frields]

On Thu, Apr 01, 2010 at 03:20:30PM -0400, Marcel Rieux wrote:
>    On Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 1:32 PM, Alan Cox <[1]alan at lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
>    wrote:
> 
>      On Thu, 1 Apr 2010 13:07:33 -0400
>      Marcel Rieux <[2]m.z.rieux at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>      > I've been a bit late to get to the Distrowatch weekly this week but I
>      > finally heard about Paul Frields, the Fedora Project Leader, stepping
>      down.
> 
>      Can you explain why you posted this to the support list. It doesn't look
>      like a bug or configuration problem to me.
> 
>    Since I'm neither a developer nor an administrator, I thought I'd post on
>    the user list. Where should I have posted?

You're welcome to email me directly, which is one option! :-)

At first I thought this might be an April Fools Day joke.  I was
working on a couple projects for Fedora when someone clued me in to
this thread.

I can assure you that I'm under no pressure from anyone to step down,
and I'm certainly *not* stepping down because of any "heat," perceived
or real!  This job has been an incredibly enjoyable part of my life
for the last 2+ years.

I love doing this job, and the people I get to work with as a result.
But there were two factors that, together, told me it was time to
start the process of handing the reins to someone who could take over,
and bring Fedora to the next level:

* There's a sort of natural rhythm to this job, as Max Spevack talked
  about in his blog here: http://spevack.livejournal.com/39464.html
  Healthy turnover is part of any good free software project, and
  Fedora and its leadership are no exceptions.  I'm actually the fifth
  project leader, as you can see here:  http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FPL

* A tremendously attractive opportunity inside Red Hat has come up
  that won't last forever.  It would be a really unique way for me to
  continue contributing to open source, albeit slightly differently
  than I do it now.  I took the FPL job in part because I didn't want
  to say to myself one day, "If only I'd..." or "I regret that I
  never..."  And not for a moment have I regretted my decision to come
  to Red Hat and do this job.  Similarly, I think this next job has
  that kind of appeal.

So that's all there is to it.  I don't think there's any reason to
look for a hidden agenda, there's simply not one.  The Fedora
community always has interesting issues and decisions to make as we
try to improve our Project and the distro.  You can look back in our
mail archives for years and see where we disagree, find consensus, and
continue forward.  Having been part of this project for six and a half
years, I've certainly seen my share!

I'm thankful for my peers and friends in the Fedora community who have
been extremely supportive since day one of my job as FPL.  I'm
thankful for my other coworkers and managers in Red Hat who work
outside the Fedora community, because I benefit from their knowledge,
passion, and devotion to open source every day.  And finally, I'm
thankful for the transparency we have in Fedora, because it allows me
to keep the community informed, as we work on the transition to a new
FPL -- just one event of many every release that keeps us a vibrant,
healthy, and growing community.

-- 
Paul W. Frields                                http://paul.frields.org/
  gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233  5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
  http://redhat.com/   -  -  -  -   http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/
          Where open source multiplies: http://opensource.com