Re: Changing "Linux" with "GNU/Linux" or "GNU"

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

On Thu, 2006-08-03 at 17:59 +0100, Joachim Noreiko wrote:
> 
> --- Don Scorgie <DonScorgie Blueyonder co uk> wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, 2006-08-03 at 11:51 -0400, Richard Stallman
> > wrote:
> > > Meanwhile, if the maintainers who deal with
> > substantial issues in the
> > > code don't want to fix these problems, that
> > obstacle is not very hard
> > > to work around.
> > > 
> > > I am sure we can find a volunteer to do it.  We
> > could give him write
> > > access to the sources, solely for the purpose of
> > making these changes
> > > in comments and documentation.  It would not be
> > necessary for this
> > > volunteer to know enough for real work on GNOME
> > development.
> > > Maintainers watching the commit logs would verify
> > that this volunteer
> > > doesn't ever change the code.
> > 
> > I get the feeling that doing this may upset a few
> > people.  If someone
> > marks the bug as WONTFIX (or would likely mark it as
> > WONTFIX), the
> > chances are that when they see someone committing
> > the same fix directly
> > (without the maintainers consent), they'll revert
> > the change and then
> > complain loudly.
> 
> The fact is, though, that the GDP pretty much has
> carte blanche when it comes to the documentation of
> GNOME-hosted apps. 
> (And for apps outside of GNOME, I really have no idea
> how much sway our guidelines have, if at all. There's
> not much adherence to the HIG, for example.)

I know there's sometimes confusion over this matter, so I want
to make sure it's clear.  Our team does not have blanket commit
privileges over every piece of documentation in CVS.  A number
of maintainers (fewer and fewer these days) have chosen to have
control over their documentation, or have assigned a specific
person to maintain it.

Historically, each document was "owned" by somebody, or a group
of somebodies.  It created this situation where people wouldn't
JFDI[1] because the document was SEP[2].  I've made a concerted
effort to get documentation owned by the GDP in general, rather
than by any particular person.  But it's still a decision for
the module maintainers.

[1] Just F-cking Do It
[2] Somebody Else's Problem

--
Shaun