But it wasn’t just that. I also wondered how much we kicked Perl’s arse. Or, put more diplomatically… I wondered what the difference might be between two large, mature FLOSS projects.

Of course, GNOME and Perl have very different structures, requirements and constituents, and there’s simply no point making comparisons with Apache’s… consortium of projects.

More seriously, I really liked the visualisation, interface and rich querying capabilities. The attention to detail to these issues makes MarkMail the #1 mail archive site I’ve seen.

Thanks to Jason Hunter at Mark Logic, we now have a full import of the GNOME mailing list archives to play with in MarkMail. Enjoy!

Update: Jason has announced the loading of 750,000 GNOME mailing list archive emails. Rock on!

Definitely great to see Cheese (of which I am quite the fan) so prominently featured in the release notes and on the front page. Rock on, Daniel!

Amazingly, something even more exciting in the GNOME galaxy has just concluded… the (by all reports) über-successful GTK+ Hackfest.

Congratulations to all involved… The future looks bright — burning magnesium bright!

With my GNOME Foundation hat on I thought that, rather than taking the easy way out by plugging a bunch of our rocking applications, it might be cool to show off some of the projects that make GNOME rock:

• WordPress and WordPress MU (multi-user)

  Blogs and planet sites have had a huge impact on communication in the FLOSS world. GNOME and WordPress share many of the same philosophies about usability and development, so it’s not surprising that heaps of GNOME contributors use WordPress — and we’ve recently deployed WordPress MU on blogs.gnome.org. WordPress rocks.

• Bugzilla

  Perpetually overlooked as one of the most important FLOSS apps, even though it is absolutely crucial to the development of so many: Mozilla, GNOME, Apache, Eclipse, OpenOffice.org… the list goes on — even NASA uses it! Bugzilla makes GNOME rock harder.

• One Laptop Per Child

  Using GNOME technologies throughout, the OLPC project has created an amazing user interface for kids, and contributed some great technologies to the FLOSS world along the way — coming soon to GNOME! The best bit is that OLPC will take Software Freedom to millions, if not billions of kids around the world.

• Cairo

  One of the classic ‘behind the scenes’ projects that has contributed to so many advances throughout the FLOSS world. It lies deep in the core of GNOME’s rendering technologies, not only delivering beautiful graphics, but a totally delicious API for software developers as well.

• Evolution

  Okay, okay, I have to plug at least one GNOME application! Evo might not be the newest or sexiest GNOME app, but it is indispensible as one of our core communications tools, and its features help many users shift to FLOSS platforms - particularly in corporate environments. The next release will even have Google Calendar and Exchange MAPI support — sweet!

Check out the article for plenty of rocking Open Source projects suggested by other FLOSS industry and community folks.

Hearty congratulations to our friends in the KDE community, who shipped KDE 4.0 today!

It’s a hard slog for any software development team to wrangle a major release such as this, but if our experience since shipping GNOME 2.0 is anything to go by, the KDE team’s efforts on this release will pay off handsomely in the future.

Now we get to wait and see what the KDE team do with this great opportunity!

Once GNOME bug #446524 is fixed for Blogo, I’ll try to push the changes upstream. OpenID is for everybody, including WPMU admins and users!

The variation is not quite large enough to make any serious judgements about the impact of Ubuntu, but the spike in 2004 has a certain whiff of intrigue about it. Perhaps that’s just me.

Of course, I soon wondered what GNOME’s yearly bug submission count looked like. Based on a very simple query against the creation date of all bugs in the database, we get…

2008 … 1554
2007 … 115178
2006 … 66011
2005 … 37838
2004 … 39927
2003 … 36432
2002 … 44130
2001 … 33426
2000 … 12362

Keeping in mind that it’s usually fairly quiet at the beginning of the year, the progress so far in 2008 puts us closer to the 2006 total than 2007’s mammoth results… I wonder if there’s a systemic reason for the massive spike? Perhaps one of the bugsquad folks can provide some insight in the comments.

Meanwhile, something (buggy?) must in the water, because almost as soon as I mentioned the numbers, someone on IRC pointed out Andre Klapper’s timely and informative annual Bugzilla statistics post, based on the output of Olav Vitter’s analysis scripts.

Rock on!

Thanks to support and interest from Linux.com, we now have some cool infrastructure for it, including web based question submission, live call-in questions, and podcast distribution. Rock!

This Wednesday, December 5, 2007, at 1 p.m. US EST (GMT -5) Linux.com is hosting a live podcast featuring Jeff Waugh, Roy Schestowitz, and reporter Bruce Byfield. […] Our editor in chief, Robin ‘Roblimo’ Miller, will moderate the discussion, which you can access either through a link we’ll post here on Linux.com about 30 minutes before the conversation starts or directly at BlogTalkRadio.

That’s this Wednesday, so check it out and tune in!

I am totally comfortable admitting my flaws and mistakes. I have made plenty. There are some issues raised in Murray’s post that have been noted before and that I’ve accepted. I will seek to resolve these soon, because they are important to me and the project I love. Of course, resolving these issues did not require such hatefulness, but that is a property of the dysfunctional relationship on display.

Despite that relationship, I have great respect and appreciation for Murray’s contributions to GNOME, and have tried to reach out an olive branch to him on numerous occasions. It has never been received kindly. I thought that after the issues we faced earlier this year, we could settle into a quiet detente, and not bother each other. But the armistice was broken, and it was not to be.

It is clear that neither of us are in a position to productively work together.

I am unlikely to make any further comment on Murray’s attacks. I just don’t think there’s a positive resolution to aim for here.

Thanks to those who have voiced support, it means a lot to me.

Retractions?

Some folks have suggested that Murray should retract his comments. He shouldn’t. That is what he feels, that is how he chose to express it, and he is old enough to be accountable and responsible for his freedom of expression. It’s his blog. They’re his words. I created Planet GNOME as a public arena, for the community to share, and this is an entirely valid expression for it. Voltaire would be rolling in his grave!

Mental Health

Meanwhile, I don’t want to bring on the violins or anything, but I’ve written earlier in the year about my depression. Although it’s impossible to pin down any one thing that leads to an episode, contributing factors can be identified.

Sadly, in this case, Murray’s attacks on me around that time were a contributing factor to my mental stress and state of mind, and had an impact on my work in GNOME, not to mention my relationships, business, etc.

I raise this because there is a very important point to be made: Despite ongoing stigma in some communities, depression is not at all like “psychosis”. This is a very nasty association. As a school counsellor once told me, “it’s not bad, it’s just sad”. Cutesy, but you get the idea.

So if you’re reading this, and you are feeling ongoing sadness, despair, a lack motivation or satisfaction in your everyday life, ignore any stigma and please see someone about it.

I’ve been going through a very rough patch over the last few weeks — thanks again to Pia, who weathers through my storms and sleet — and I need to do the same thing, probably more so after this.

It’s the only way to help yourself, and the saddest things happen when people don’t get help.

Finally

Read the post, make up your own mind, and vote accordingly.

(Oh, and happy Movember!)

Due to my position as a director of the GNOME Foundation, it’s important to point out that this post represents my personal views, not those of the Foundation.

Novell and the GNOME Foundation

Novell is a member of the GNOME Foundation Advisory Board, along with most of the other companies that play a role in the GNOME community (see the ‘sponsors’ section on the front page of the GNOME Foundation website).

Like the GNOME Foundation itself, the GNOME Foundation Advisory Board does not define the technical goals of the project. Additionally, it does not have an executive role in the operation of the Foundation.

As it says on the box, the Advisory Board exists purely to serve an advisory function to keep the GNOME Foundation directors in touch with our corporate (be they commercial or non-profit) contributors.

The GNOME Foundation seeks to be a conduit between the commercial interests in GNOME and the broader community, and the Advisory Board plays a crucial role in this mission.

Membership of the Advisory Board involves an annual financial contribution to the GNOME Foundation of USD$10,000 for companies of Novell’s size.

Aside from sponsorship of GNOME events such as GUADEC, Novell’s (and previously, Ximian’s) financial contribution has not changed since they were a founding member of the GNOME Foundation.

The only positive irregularity in their financial contribution was in 2003-2004 when Novell sponsored an experimental set of GNOME “desktop integration” bounties run by the GNOME Foundation. For the conspiracy theorists out there, do note that this was before OOXML and before Novell’s relationship with Microsoft.

There are no Novell employees among the 2007 team of GNOME Foundation directors, and no Novell employees standing for the 2008 term.

Novell representatives have been absent without regrets for every GNOME Foundation Advisory Board conference call held this year, though JP Rosevar (desktop team lead at Novell) did participate in the face-to-face Advisory Board meeting at GUADEC.

The GNOME Foundation greatly appreciates Novell’s financial contributions in the form of Advisory Board fees and sponsorship of events, and enjoys Novell’s participation in the Advisory Board when they are active… I’m sure a Novell representative will be present at next Friday’s Advisory Board conference call!

Juuuuuuust to make sure this point is totally clear, I’ll reiterate that Novell’s financial contribution does not provide them with any technical or organisational influence over the GNOME Foundation or the GNOME community in general. Got it? Good. Let’s move on!

Novell contributions to GNOME

Novell continues to contribute to the GNOME project in many ways, including maintainership of software like Evolution and the Control Center, contributions to Network Manager, making OpenOffice.org integrate nicely with GNOME, all of the Mono-based applications such as Tomboy, F-Spot, Banshee and Beagle, bug fixing and performance work, and plenty of other stuff. They’re active upstream, quietly doing “the usual work” all the time.

Sadly, many of the bright lights of the Novell desktop team — such as Jon, Rob, Joe and others — have moved on to other companies, often to positions that don’t involve GNOME development.

This is a huge loss to our community, and I do think that their feelings of disenfranchisement among their “home” community have directly contributed to this.

It seems to be that if you work for Novell, no matter what role or opinion you hold or how irrelevant you are to the strategic choices of the company, you’re going to suffer a lot of crap for them anyway. I think that’s a terribly unfortunate state of affairs for the FLOSS community, but I understand why it happens.

Like any company/community relationship, there are ups and downs. But in general, the GNOME community has a long-standing positive relationship with contributors within Novell, and we love working with them. They hack on a whole bunch of cool things and make GNOME better in the process. Whatever our disagreements, we agree on the core values and vision of GNOME: Software Freedom is not just for geeks!

Miguel and GNOME

Miguel does not play an active role in the GNOME community, and hasn’t done so for quite some time now. He was a director of the Foundation for the last time in 2005.

Miguel is still a member of the GNOME Foundation, as our members have the option to continue their membership regardless of their current activity in the project.

We think this is an important way to show our appreciation for past contributors, and keep them around to encourage their return or enjoy the benefit of their wisdom should they choose to bestow it. A good example of this would be Alan Cox smacking me around at every opportunity.

Interestingly, Miguel was actually the President of the GNOME Foundation until only a few weeks ago, but we have been asking him for years to send a resignation letter, and recently nailed down a plan to finally get his resignation and appoint the President and Vice-President from the directors. As of the last Foundation Board meeting, that process is complete.

It’s important to point out that during this time, the Foundation Chairman was capably performing the role of President, and Miguel was not participating or interacting in GNOME Foundation activities or administration at all.

Despite his inactivity in the project, Miguel is often the source of some controversy among GNOME contributors. My reading of the project suggests that few of Miguel’s opinions are shared by the majority of active GNOME contributors, particularly those regarding Mono, OOXML, Moonlight and the Novell/Microsoft relationship.

Update: Note that I’m sure Miguel regards his work on Mono and the excellent GNOME bindings for it as a contribution to GNOME — certainly the platform has resulted in a bunch of great GNOME-based applications. However, as a result of the walls of controversy between GNOME and Mono (which I cover in more detail below), I’m not sure a broad majority of the project would see Miguel’s work on Mono in this light. This is just my reading of the community though, and I know there is a good base of Mono fans among GNOME developers. I’m really trying to be sensitive to both sides of the issue here, but I might have annoyed both audiences in the process. Sorry.

In some cases, Miguel is seen as an oddity or object of amusement, who has lost pretty much all of his influence among GNOME contributors, new or old. Indeed, as far back as 2002, Miguel did not receive enough support in the GNOME Foundation election to be among the top five vote recipients.

(I’m sorry if this seems blunt, but I think it clearly demonstrates Miguel’s long-term waning influence on the GNOME project in the face of FUD and misinformation about his intent and involvement. Miguel shouldn’t be held responsible for GNOME, and GNOME shouldn’t be held responsible for Miguel.)

But there is something that will never change among GNOME developers: Miguel is still highly respected for founding GNOME, and his massive early contributions. He had the vision and energy to create a truly Free desktop environment under trying circumstances, and although he is no longer involved, and popular opinion about him has changed, he will always have our utmost appreciation and respect for creating the project we love: GNOME.

Talking with Nat

I sat down with Nat Friedman at GUADEC in order to talk about a few things that were on my mind regarding Novell and GNOME. I had a very clear three-point agenda that I wanted to go through:

1. The relationship and agreement with Microsoft.
2. Novell’s approach to feature development and ‘code dumping’.
3. GNOME and Mono.

We didn’t end up talking about the first two points, because Nat was extremely focused on the Mono issue, and whichever way I tried to lead him through my thought narrative, it would quickly come back to Mono.

I don’t really fault him for this: It was clearly his number one concern.

One of the things he described was the “bunker mentality” of some of the GNOME hackers in Novell — the controversy about Mono and the constant questioning of their motives was having a huge impact on their passion for contributing to the project.

Other members of the team, even those not working on Mono related stuff, were feeling the same thing. They felt as if they were constantly under attack, and quite legitimately so.

I imagine some folks outside the GNOME project won’t feel too much sympathy here, but those Novell hackers are our friends and team-mates, no matter what our disagreements might be with their management!

We didn’t get to talk about the other stuff (and I’d love to catch up again to do so, I haven’t seen him for ages), but I thought Nat’s concerns about how Novell’s hackers feel was an important perspective to include in this document.

Sometimes, it’s easy for us all to forget that there are people behind the email addresses, behind the nicks, and behind the company names.

GNOME and Mono

I’ve mentioned this a little bit here, but I’m going to leave the bulk of my commentary about GNOME and Mono for another post.

Questions?

The comments are open, and I’ll happily answer any questions about GNOME, the GNOME Foundation, and our relationship with Novell. Perhaps some Novell folks will contribute some other perspectives too.

Federico, you might be learning the wrong lesson from this story, or possibly seeing only the Nail du Jour?

You don’t need a distributed revision control system to do the right thing by the communities who power your products.

If Novell had done this work upstream in the first place, it would have saved everyone a lot of time, effort and community patience — including Novell.

Update: Despite already receiving a correction from Matthias, Federico implies that the gnome-panel changes were made after intlclock. Sadly, the gnome-panel changes were made before anyone in the community had access to intlclock at all. It’s unfortunate that we found out about such a worthy change to the basic GNOME desktop experience by finding it in a SuSE screenshot.