Omniture & Fedora

[Max Spevack]

On Fri, 29 Feb 2008, Rahul Sundaram wrote:

> Not to be negative but Fedora has avoided using proprietary software 
> or services as much as possible and quite successfully. It is bad 
> enough that trend is not kept as much within Red Hat but why 
> proliferate it within Fedora too?

Hi Rahul,

Let me explain my reasons for beginning this thread in the manner in 
which I did:

Things I am *not* doing:

* I am not suggesting that Fedora should use any proprietary software.

* I am not *mandating* that anyone in Fedora do anything.

Things I *am* doing:

* I am responding to a query from Red Hat's web team about how they can 
gain some visibility to Fedora traffic in their current system for all 
other Red Hat properties.

* I am directing the person in charge of that (Jesse) to the Fedora 
Websites team so that he can state his case (if he so chooses) and have 
a conversation with the community.

---

My goal is always to allow the community *doers* to interact directly 
with the Red Hat *doers* without folks like me having to be the middle 
man.  So when someone comes to me with a request that really belongs in 
the hands of the Fedora Websites leaders, I believe that it is my job to 
bring those two parties together, and try to summarize the topic of 
discussion.

I do this while trying not to offer my own opinion, so as not to sway 
the discussion one way or another.

Ultimately, from the Fedora point of view, this is a question of "adding 
a little JavaScript to a few pages".

The pros of this:
  * It is helpful to our friends in the larger Red Hat world, and we 
would be doing them a favor.

The cons of this:
  * Our friends in the larger Red Hat world need that JavaScript in order 
to operate with a larger analysis system that Fedora would never choose 
to implement themselves due to philosophical reasons.

It is up to the leaders within the Fedora Websites team to consider this 
and make a decision.  They can reject it outright.  They can ask for 
more information.  They can debate.  Whatever.

But I assume that you would rather have the opportunity to make a 
decision like this directly, rather than have it be decided (in either 
direction) for you.

--Max