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posted by takyon on Monday January 25 2016, @11:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the let-by-laws-be-bygones dept.

Linux Foundation chief spins to justify keeping community out

Linux Foundation chief executive Jim Zemlin has made a disappointing response to the reports about changes in the by-laws of the Foundation designed to prevent community representation. Confronted by facts that show clearly that the Foundation has made changes to block out the community, Zemlin [has] tried to spin and talked about irrelevant aspects of the debate around the issue. iTWire could not have made it more plain when pointing out the changes in the by-laws; they were marked in bold. Zemlin ignored everything and instead created a few straw men and then addressed them.

His statement began with a straw man: "The same individuals remain as directors, and the same ratio of corporate to community directors continues as well." Nobody has said anything about a change of directors, but the latter part of Zemlin's statement is just plain wrong. How can the ratio be the same when the community was earlier allowed to have two directors and now cannot have any? Zemlin then went on to claim that the Linux Foundation's move is in keeping with other FOSS organisations that are also cutting down on community representation. This again is incorrect, another straw man. Would he care to name the organisations he claims to be trying to emulate?

The major part of his statement talks about the abuse directed at Karen Sandler, the head of the Software Freedom Conservancy. Zemlin's changing of the by-laws was widely seen as a move to keep Sandler off the board as she is a passionate supporter of the GPL. The Conservancy is funding a GPL enforcement action against VMWare, a silver member of the Linux Foundation, and this is seen as a major reason why Zemlin has concluded that the fewer community members on the board the better.

In discussions around the web, there has been mention of the way the GNOME Foundation ran low on funds when Sandler was its head. Some claim that this was because more money was diverted to the outreach programme for women. Sandler has earned some flak for this. And so Zemlin became a knight in shining armour to defend what he characterised as a damsel in distress. Wow, he really went heavy on this.

The fact that most of the code for the kernel comes from developers employed by this company or that appears to have turned Zemlin's head and made him determined to ensure that only non-controversial people occupy the decision-making spots on the Foundation.

This is the relevant blog post by Linux Foundation chief Jim Zemlin responding to the controversy.

Previously: Linux Foundation No Longer Allows Little Guys in on the Election of Directors


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 25 2016, @11:20PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 25 2016, @11:20PM (#294661)

    Perhaps he's circling the wagons for when the Smiley Gladhands finish gutting the Ruby community?

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  • (Score: 0, Insightful) by jmorris on Tuesday January 26 2016, @01:20AM

    by jmorris (4844) on Tuesday January 26 2016, @01:20AM (#294699)

    Exactly, this was putting a firm foot down on an attempt at SJW entryism. Bring this trojan horse onto the board and within a year there will be a call for a Code of Conduct and pressure brought to bear on the corporate entities to support it. There have already been multiple attempts to claim Linus's scalp, this is just one more by a different method.