[Debian-sf-devel] Public relations and journalists, again

[Roland Mas]

  Hi all,

  It's the second time in a few days that I've seen an article
speaking about Gforge as being the only real Free clone of
Sourceforge.  This one was on LWN[1].  While I appreciate the
publicity that makes for free software, it's twice in a few days I've
seen incorrect info posted on a news site.

  I have therefore written a rant^Wcomment on the latest one, where
the status of the forks is explained.  So that the next article about
Gforge or Berlios (or whatever the next big one is) turns out not to
forget the people who have worked for long hours.  I tried to keep the
tone cool, but I was rather angry when I first read it.  Maybe I
expect too much about journalists or reporters, but checking their
info before posting would seem natural to me.  I understand that Tim
reviving the code that his own company made proprietary made for a
good news article, but if you're going to mention others (which you
should), just get your info accurate.

  Let me restate quite explicitly: there is no competition between the
different forks.  The Savannah people wanted something adapted to the
GNU/FSF servers, we Debian-SF people want something that Just Works,
the Gforge people (well, Tim actually ;-) wanted to clean up the code.
Fine.  Gforge and Debian-SF are trying to merge, we might get some
code from Savannah, they might take some for ours.  That's the rules
of the game, we accept it quite gladly.

  End of rant from my part.  Please read my comments on the LWN
article[1].  For your penitence, Steve and Rick, you're condemned to
wait for a month or three and then write an article about how Gforge
and Debian-SF have merged and are now the best thing since sliced
bread, and I'm Cc:ing LWN so that they can link to this forthcoming
article when it's out :-)

Roland.

[1] http://lwn.net/Articles/17369/
-- 
Roland Mas

Late frost burns the bloom / Would a fool not let the belt / Restrain the body?
  -- in Good Omens (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman)