[gentoo-dev] New Team Structure

[gentoo-dev] New Team Structure

[Daniel Robbins]

Hi All,

The dev-wiki has been updated to reflect our new team structure (many thanks to
Thread!).  I haven't really gotten much response about who wants to be on what
team; if you're a developer, you *need* to get this info to me or I'll pick a
team for you.  Also, we have lots of team leader positions open. I hope my last
email didn't scare anyone from becoming a team leader; to compensate, here are
some of the good things about being a team leader:

- you'll have the ability to shape a complete section of the Gentoo Linux
  distro.

- you'll have a team of developers at your command.

- you'll be interacting with me and Achim directly; if you're not a team
  leader, you'll be reporting to the team leader rather than me and Achim, so
  your contact with us will be limited.

- you will be playing a key role in making Gentoo Linux ready for prime-time,
  and if you do a great job your efforts will not be forgotten after Gentoo
  Linux 1.0.  Any excellent team leaders will become a key part of our
  development team.  When we start generating income, that could potentially
  translate into a full-time staff position.

- This is chance to prove yourself by helping Gentoo Linux.  As you do, Achim
  and I will gradually give you more authority.  Our goal is to use the Team
  Leader position to cultivate developers who want to rise to the "achim" and
  "drobbins" level of Gentoo Linux expertise.  This will allow us to
  potentially put some of our Team Leaders in charge of, say, the entire x86
  version of Gentoo Linux so that me and Achim can focus on the PowerPC and
  other processors, as well as other Unix operating systems.  Or,
  alternatively, you may lead these new development efforts.  Basically, by
  becoming a Team Leader, you will be putting yourself in a position where you
  can eventually manage the entire distro.  We're going to spend more time
  personally interacting with our Team Leaders and give you the resources you
  need to gain this experience and expertise.

- Prestige.  Since you will be getting involved in Gentoo Linux development in
  a non-trivial way, you'll have something of significance to add to your
  resume.  

We have Team Leader positions open in the System, Tools, Infrastructure and and
Server teams.  All developers please get back to me and let me know how you'd
like to be involved in the new team structure:  You need to tell me a team name
you'd like to be part of and whether or not you'd like to be a team leader.

Best Regards,

-- 
Daniel Robbins					<drobbins@gentoo.org>
President/CEO					http://www.gentoo.org 
Gentoo Technologies, Inc.			

Re: [gentoo-dev] New Team Structure

[Daniel Robbins]

On Sat, Jul 21, 2001 at 03:39:33AM +0200, Hendrik Visage wrote:
> Hi Daniel,
> 
>  currently I'm tempted to ask for a team leader position, but at
> present I haven't yet decided if the USE system is/will be working 
> for me as it currently (ie. rc5 build install with a couple of options
>  removed) doesn't quite work as advertized for me...

The USE system *does* indeed work; I am planning to upgrade it and already have
the new design in my head (with categories, much easier configuration and 100%
backwards compatibility). But I have no time to add new features to Portage;
that's where the new team concept comes in.  Once the new teams are up and
running, I'll finally have some time to focus on *my* area of expertise --
Portage.  Until then, all Portage upgrades are on hold as I try to juggle all
things Gentoo Linux, live my "real" life and answer gentoo-dev emails to boot.

So if you'd like Portage development to speed up (in reality, resume), then the
best way to make this happen is to come alongside us, take a personal stake in
the success of Gentoo Linux, and put in some solid, consistent long-term work
to help us take this OS to the next level.  We're in this for the long haul;
Gentoo Linux *will* get to the level of refinement that you (and I, and
everyone else) desire.  But whether we get to that point sooner or later is
largely dependent on how much help we get from the Gentoo Linux user community.
It depends on all of you who are reading this email.  

Now that our project is really starting to grow, we need to get more people
meaningfully involved in Gentoo Linux development so we can benefit from the
economies of scale inherent in free, open software development.  Up until now,
97% of the work going into Gentoo Linux has come from just two individuals, me
and Achim.  And for the last year, Achim alone has been doing most of the work
while I have been focusing on my IBM dW articles.  So, the Gentoo Linux that
you use today is effectively the fruit of just two individuals' hard work.  My
goal is to rally the troops and parallelize our development process.  With the
committed help of the Gentoo Linux community, this will allow us to *quadruple*
(4x!) the rate of Gentoo Linux development in the next 16 weeks, and then
double this rate by the end of the year.  Imagine what a dramatic positive
impact this will have, allowing us to begin PPC and IA64 ports early next year.
This dramatic improvement in productivity *is* possible -- if the right people
step forward.  

Best Regards,

-- 
Daniel Robbins					<drobbins@gentoo.org>
President/CEO					http://www.gentoo.org 
Gentoo Technologies, Inc.