Reinventing Haiku
2007 has been a year of change for Haiku. None of it has been quite like this, however. Haiku, as an organization, is reinventing itself. First of all, on Aug. 31, Michael Phipps announced to the Haiku admin team that he intended to move on. Here are some of his words on the subject:
"... I think that it is time that I move on. Haiku has become something that I do because I have to. ... I am *NOT* in any way angry or bitter. I WANT Haiku to succeed. I still love it. ... This has been a great run and I am phenomenally proud of what we have accomplished here. I am very sad to be leaving, but I think that it is the right decision both for Haiku and for me personally."
Michael has written an article, in which he reflects on his departure. There is no doubt that Michael will be dearly missed by all of us as a visionary, leader, and friend. Michael, should you ever feel like it, you are most welcome to rejoin our efforts!
Following Michael's announcement to the team, everyone felt that this would be the right time to put into place some fundamental restructuring of our organization which had been discussed at length for some weeks. This reorganization's purpose is to better fit Haiku's needs, such as current developers needing to be able to focus on development and matching non-development needs with members of the community who wish to meet them.
One persisting problem with the current admin team is that most of its members don't have enough time to do non-development work for the project or simply aren't interested, and those who do could need more help. In order to address this problem, we have decided to take the following steps to transition to a new and hopefully more effective structure.
First, we will unify all contributors with commit access to the Haiku source tree into a single Developer Team, which will be exclusively focused on development and all technical and development-related decisions, including the creation of one or more eventual Haiku distributions. Membership to this team is automatic through gaining commit access. The rules for gaining or losing commit access will be simple and announced separately.
In parallel, we are setting up a "Transition Steering Committee" consisting of developers, admins and a few trusted community members who will be tasked with the mission of creating a body designed to effectively manage the assets and resources of the project, and support its growth through activities such as funding, marketing, business relations and others. The ultimate goal of this committee is to setup a Haiku Inc. on steroids with a new president, a functional BOD, a charter, more transparency and some form of representation from the community. The transition process to this beefed up Haiku Inc. is expected to take several months, during which the community will be consulted from time to time for input on various matters. After the transition period, the people involved can be ratified in their positions or replaced by some form of representative vote.
We are hoping that by having two bodies with clearly defined and distinct roles, everyone will be able to focus on what they do best, making the individuals more productive and the organization as a whole more effective. Needless to say, both groups will work synergistically, and will consult each other when either side deems it necessary.
We think that this restructuring will be positive for Haiku in the long run. But as they say, "the devil is in the details". :) So we will keep the community posted as we figure out the details along the way. In the meantime, if you have any comments or input, feel free to post a message to the Haiku mailing list. We want to know what you think.
Comments
Re: Reinventing Haiku
Sad but interesting I suppose.
Good luck to Michael on whatever he brings on. Myself am pretty impressed that he actually hold it together for so long as he did. Quite a few has come and gone over the years but Michael has been there for what is it, 6 years now? Amazing.
Now, I would definitely not be one of those that do have time, I hardly leave lurking mode ever. Though certain issues has to be considered with this transition
1. The "philosophy" should remain. I'm thinking the MIT idea, the "keep it simple but usable" idea etc. My nightmare would be someone coming on who suddenly wants to make fundamental (and IMHO wrong) changes to what has kept Haiku going for so long.
2. Not sure this is the time, but having someone full time employed would certainly not be a bad thing if you ask me. This calls for serious funding I suppose, however I really don't have a clue what is reasonable to pay someone.
I'd really would love for this transition group to look into this second one. I have a strong problem with donating through paypal who have some really odd fees, but if it was very clear how much is needed and for what, I could very well consider putting on a monthly donation. This would not only go for management but most certainly for particular devs (Axel and Ingo come to mind at this stage). I would assume that management at this stage would take about 1/4th or perhaps 1/5th of a full time duty. What would that mean moneywise?
May I suggest looking into this, and more specifically saying what someone would want to work full time? Potentially team up with Haikuware to make bounties about this specifically.
Say I donate 50$/month... is there anyone else out there willing to match this? NOTE! I would *NOT* want this money to go to marketing of any kind, strictly peoples time going straight back into the project or the foundation. Preferably done quarterly to bank in Europe with actual bank transfer rather than Paypal or any other company taking %tax.
Re: Reinventing Haiku
Hello Haicube,
thanks for your comments. Sorry if it was not clear from the article, but the transition is about the administrative structure itself, not about the project goals or philosophy or anything like that.
Re: Reinventing Haiku
I have followed the projet since the first day, even though i wished 'OpenBeOS' to succeed i was sceptical that a small bunch of developers will be able to create a 'dignified successor' of the BeOS.
Michael and few others believed it was possible and they've done their bests efforts for the project.
Surely the R1 is still not here, but today Haiku is a reality. I wish to say again my sinceres thankfulness to all thoses Be-lievers.
Thanks indeed Michael and thanks to all devs for the all the achievements. I definitely wish to support you in the futur with donations -Plz setup a money transfer within Europe ;)
Re: Reinventing Haiku
Thank You for Your work, Michael!
Best regards,
miqlas
Re: Reinventing Haiku
Michael Phipps and Darkwyrm leaving within a week of each other ? I don't like the looks of this at all.
This a rather unfortunate news for Haiku in North America. I was hoping Michael Phipps would power through his real life issues and return with renewed vigor. With Darkwyrm starting a new wordpress blog and assuring us that WalterCon '08 would not suffer from this year's WalterCon disaster, it seemed he would be around at least until next year. That, only to shut it down. I guess the undertow of real life is too strong to resist, and that Haiku is to be left to the people with too much time on their hands, to the armchair warriors and backseat drivers, to those that wallow in the glory days gone by, to the fanatically dedicated with the slightly crazed look, to the intelligent, to the energetic, to they that have a spare moment to spend doing what they love, and to the people that think they can change the world.
So is this the tipping point where Haiku rises anew or falls further down ? This is very critical time for Haiku the brand and Haiku the community. The code is out there, and there are people to work on it for now.
So what will happen to Haiku Inc ? AFAIK, it is Michael Phipps. I don't think he can just give it away.
It'd like to thank Michael Phipps and Darkwyrm for their years of dedication. Yes, there has been some recent disagreement, but this isn't the way it should've ended. I guess when your hobby isn't fun anymore and feels like a chore, it's time to move on. They're two of the nicest and down to earth people.
Even though they're stepping down, I hope to see them at any future WalterCon or Haiku events because, quite frankly, they're about 1/4 of Haiku in America.
P.S.
Does anyone know of a car with plenty of room in the trunk ? Preferably one without the emergency release inside ?
;-)
Re: Reinventing Haiku
Hello mikesum32,
actually, Darkwyrm announced his leave much later than Michael (~1.5 months). It only took us quite a while to come out with this announcement for various reasons. Darkwyrm is actually quite busy with Haiku work at the moment and he is not leaving in a hurry. You ask what will happen to Haiku Inc. I know the announcement does not go very far into the details, but I had hoped that it would be at least clear that this is what we are working on at the moment. We will keep you posted, the details more likely through the mailing list than here. No need to have such short lived status reports on such a permanent medium such as this comments sections... :-)
Best regards,
-Stephan
This is a chance
Hey, Mike, you sound a bit down. I don't share your pessimism.
Sure, it's sad to see two long time developers go, one even the project leader from day one.
On the other hand, on the development side of things not that much seems to change with the Reinvention(tm). Up to now coding had almost the complete focus. Everyone actively producing code now can continue to do so and join in the Developer Team.
The non-coding side has until now been on the back burner. Short forays of the MarCom team weren't that successfull, because they couldn't convice the project leaders/admins of their ideas.
I see this reorganisation as a chance to balance the scales without taking resources from code-development. Bringing the PR side of things up to speed is essential for having a successful R1.
The only question is: Are there enough competent people willing to work on the organisational side? I hope Koki will give it another try, now that he could have more creative freedom...
In any way, I see more chances than risks. Worst case: Status quo, complete focus remains on the Developer Team, Axel cranks out mlcs from the basement and we'll have an Xmas-Alpha... :)
Re: Reinventing Haiku
@Blibbering Humdinger
I'm not really that pessimistic. I just needed some sleep. I get a little loopy sometimes when I'm tired. I have more of a "wait and see attitude." This is a critical moment where things can go really right or really wrong.
@Stephan Aßmus
Aren't there a slew of legal hurdles to jump over with regards to Haiku Inc ?
Re: Reinventing Haiku
Yes there is a "slew of legal hurdles". I don't understand what you are trying to tell me, though. :-)
As for posting loopy comments, please remember that they are permanent... :-)
Re: Reinventing Haiku
I'd say it's a subtle way of asking you to enumerate said legal hurdles, and what you plan to do about them. ;-) Not necessarily here and now.
ME: Aren't there a gaggle of legalese rings of fire to jump through, as well as hordes of robo-ninja-lawyers that practice the deadly art of robo-ninja-lawyer-fu ?
YOU: That's a very good question. In fact there are a number of legal entanglements. We are discussing this matter on the admin mailing list and are preparing a statement for release in the next week on the general mailing list, with further discussion and details there.
Something like that.
:-D
Re: Reinventing Haiku
"This a rather unfortunate news for Haiku in North America."
I'm from NY, just like mphipps so obviously I would have reason to be pleased if the center of Haiku was USA. But you gotta look here-most of the Haiku action is in Europe. Most of *any* alt-OS action is in Europe. So I think for the sake of haiku, the next admin should be closer to the action and future Waltercons won't be a major deal.
Re: Reinventing Haiku
the MIT/Haiku ideal: to do most of what people need to get their work done in a nice clean way. Not so many choices but they are all well thought out.
the unix ideal: lots of little pieces that are simple in isolation but when put together, form this big bloated OS. Lots and lots of choices just for the sake of choices.
Re: Reinventing Haiku
Sad but interesting I suppose.
Say I donate 50$/month... is there anyone else out there willing to match this? NOTE! I would *NOT* want this money to go to marketing of any kind, strictly peoples time going straight back into the project or the foundation. Preferably done quarterly to bank in Europe with actual bank transfer rather than Paypal or any other company taking %tax.
I'm willing to match this for sure under the above conditions! Development of Haiku must continue and money is crucial now! I agree width Haicube that an alternative to Paypal is very welcome for us in Europe.
Herr Aßmus, can I have your bank accountnumber please ;-)
Lost my hope
i met Michael. i enjoyed his friendliness, enthusiasm and mindset. He believes in what i believes (in at least what a computer should do, be and how it should present itself to the user, because, really, the user is the REASON and the user is the computer's PURPOSE).
Seeing Michael depart saddens me. i'm sure it is a decision he made for all the right reasons and i stand by him.
Still, without knowing that Haiku has leadership like Michael's (or, better yet, Michael's attitude about the end product), i am now lost and without hope of ever seeing Haiku become what it should become.
Linux, like Microsoft, just has to keep dangling the carrot and keeping interest. It owns the minds of those following the dangling carrots in the "alternative operating system world" (as if there were such a thing in terms of actual computers or actual user-oriented devices... look at the utter abortion of Palm...).
Good bye, cruel world. i'm going bankrupt and gathering as much technology to live my technical arts life while i'm broke and that is all based around Microsoft and Apple. Beyond that, i'm likely saying goodbye to the world at large, too.
My Death Explained
-jace
long time BeOS/Haiku faithful, heading off to tie up loose ends...
Re: Reinventing Haiku
even Darkwyrm too?
............sigh.........