Hi Lance,

You started this thread by proposing that: (1) Gentoo is lacking
a direction/goal, (2) this is supported by the lack of ground breaking
enhancements in the past couple of years.  Later in the thread you
proposed that (3) the solution may be to appoint a single person to
provide a global goal/direction for the project.

Looking first at 1 and 2, I think your assumption that ground-breaking
enhancements are dependent on direction/goal is false.  IMHO any
single project within Gentoo can bring ground-breaking enhancements to
the distribution without being given prior direction from a higher
authority.  The places where Gentoo needs improvement are generally
well-known, and any developer has the power to bring a design and
implementation to the table.  The problem here isn't a lack of
direction, it's a lack of action, particularly in the areas that *you*
consider ground-breaking.  What in particular would you like to see?

So, keeping in mind that any developer can bring a plan to the table,
my understanding of the council is this: In cases where a plan
requires broader changes, the role of the council is to make sure that
the plan makes sense in the context of Gentoo, where "context" is
defined as history, philosophy, and the collection of goals defined by
the other projects.  It is not the role of the council to cook up the
plan, that can be done by any developer(s), including council members
if they have any brilliant ideas. ;-)

Finally, looking at 3, that statement depends on the relationship
between direction/goal and ground-breaking enhancements.  If that
relationship does not exist, then 3 is moot: Appointing a single
individual to lead the project will not have an effect of generating
ground-breaking enhancements.

Personally, I agree with Grant's and Chris's comments in this thread.
There have been some positive changes in the past couple years, and
there are people working hard to bring more about.  Hopefully we're
cultivating an environment where the next major enhancement is just
around the corner.  What will it be?  I'm in favor of leaving that to
the individual projects to determine.

Regards,
Aron

--
Aron Griffis
Gentoo Linux Developer