Questions for the board election candidates

[Robert Nordan <rpvn robpvn net>]

Hi all, I have a few questions for the candidates in the upcoming
election to the board. They are obviously shaped by my interests, but I
believe that other Foundation members may be interested in the answers
as well.

1) "Open Source" or "Free Software"?

This is about personal philosophy: Do you prefer the pragmatism of the
Open Source Initiative or the political idealism of the Free Software
Foundation? (Some of the candidates have already flagged a stance on
this.)

2) Overhaul of GNOME's git infrastructure

I personally believe that the way the GNOME git system is set up is a
bit antiquated and doesn't use git to its full potential. It's fine for
developers with commit access, but  contributors without have to create
individual patches and attach them to bug trackers or convince the
maintainers to look up their personal branch hosted somewhere else and
merge in. In a time when GitHub is setting the standard for ease of use
when it comes to forking, merging and development, GNOME is lagging
behind.

I have heard chatter among GNOME people about setting up a GNOME
instance of Gitorious to gain that kind of functionality, but nothing
has really happened. Do any of the candidates want to make a juicy
campaign promise on this issue?

3) GNOME and Ubuntu

In the recent years there has been a public perception of a schism
between GNOME and Ubuntu resulting in double work and wasted resources
on both sides. Do you think that perception is unfounded or not, and how
do you plan to handle it?

4) Stance on GNOME forks

Similarly, GNOME 3 has met with some opposing developments like Cinnamon
and MATE. It is of course the right of dissatisfied users to do what
they want and fork if they like, but should GNOME ignore them or try to
find ways to work together with them?


-- 
Robert Nordan <rpvn robpvn net>