1
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I have to be honest
I'm really honored to be here

2
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I don't say that to just every conference
I care a lot about Debian

3
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
This is my 3rd DebConf I've ever been to.


4
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There have been a lot of them so I 
obviously haven't been to that many

5
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But I was at DebConf1

6
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I just learned today that it was zero
based so that it wasn't the first DebConf

7
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
which I should have known but didn't for
some reason.

8
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I was at the 2nd DebConf by accident
somewhat because I was going to

9
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Libre Software Meeting and just
happened to

10
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
book my flights so that I could be at
DebConf as well

11
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I gave a regular track talk at DebConf10
about the GPL v3

12
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
because it was in New York City where I
was living at the time

13
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Here I'm giving an invited speaker talk or
keynote or whatever else it is called here

14
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That really means a lot to me.

15
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I'm a fan of Debian, I'm a user of Debian.

16
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I don't actually consider myself part of
the Debian community

17
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
because other than filing a few bugs
over the years

18
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I haven't contributed all that much to
Debian but I've relied on it and used it

19
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and been a fan of it for so long
that I really love your project.

20
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
So I am really honored to be invited to
speak here

21
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and I really believe that Debian is a
very special project for a lot of reasons.

22
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
First of all, it has thrived for longer
than almost any free software project

23
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in existence in a lot of ways. 
There are top 10 lists of projects that

24
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Debian is certainly on as far as longevity
goes, maybe the top 5

25
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It's governance is one of the few
democratically elected and

26
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
democratically controlled
governance processes in free software

27
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Everyone is a fan of talking about this
'benevolent dictator' stuff

28
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
which I think is really horrible
The fact that somebody would call

29
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
themselves a 'self appointed benevolent
dictator for life' is really disturbing.

30
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
You are democratic.

31
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
You elect your leadership.

32
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
You have referendums on major issues
that everyone can vote on.

33
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That is amazingly rare, impressive
and important for free software.

34
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The other thing that really impresses me,

35
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
in particular being somebody from the
non-profit world,

36
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is that Debian has been staunchly
non-commercial for it's entire existence.

37
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Of course I don't mean that Debian
can't be used in commercial settings.

38
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
DFSG free means that things can be put
into commercial products.

39
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
What I mean is that the project itself has
always been non-commercial,

40
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
meaning that the people that work on it
are volunteering,

41
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and, even if their employers are paying
them to work on it,

42
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
they are part of a community and not
doing their work inside Debian as

43
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
officially part of some
commercial activity.

44
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Most free software projects these days
are controlled by

45
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
some commercial entity or another.

46
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Debian is not.

47
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I was at Debconf1 which was really
exciting for me.

48
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I was a young executive director of
Free Software.

49
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I showed this picture to Karen Sandler who
I work with and said how different I look.

50
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
She said I don't look different at all,

51
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
but, speaking as the person that looks
at that face in the mirror every morning,

52
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
there are a lot more lines on my face
than there.

53
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That is a smooth looking baby face that I
had 14 years ago that I don't have anymore

54
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I was pretty casual back then.
I'm not in short trousers any more.

55
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It's hard to see and you can see it in
some of the other photos that I was.

56
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Even in this heat like this I haven't
worn short trousers in a very long time.

57
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
What's that? [bdale heckles]

58
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Bdale, I was thinking about mentioning you
and now I have to because you are heckling

59
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
me [laughter]. Bdale is the one adult
in the room who can dress like

60
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
everybody else but I can't pull it off

61
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I respect Bdale that he can. 
The tie-dye still works for him.

62
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And I stopped wearing t-shirts years ago
at conferences

63
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and here I'm sweating in my long sleeves
halfway between hacker and suit attire.

64
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And there [in the photo] I'm talking to
Martin Michmayer

65
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I'm going to do questions at the end Lars,
if that's ok.


66
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I'm not good with questions because I
get off topic easy.

67
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I left 17 minutes at the end for questions
which Bdale just took 3 of [laughter]

68
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
There I'm talking to Martin Michlmayer
when I first met him.

69
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
A lot of things have changed since I
looked at this photo.

70
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
But one thing that hasn't changed,
you see this face that Martin is making.

71
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
He still makes that face at me every time
I talk to him, which sort of says like

72
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
"You do not know what you are talking
about". That hasn't changed, which is good

73
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
[laughter]. I'm glad he is laughing in the
back there.

74
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Some things have stayed the same.
Martin still thinks I'm full of it.

75
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
And I probably am, so that's ok.
I like people to keep me honest.

76
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Other than jokes, the thing that hasn't
really changed since I was first

77
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
introduced to the Debian community, in
person, back in 2001,

78
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
is the ethos of this community is still
the same one that I remember

79
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
even though a lot of the developers
have changed.

80
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I talked to somebody who had never
even installed Debian when they were at

81
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
DebConf1. I talked to someone who was
12 years old at the time of DebConf1.

82
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I find it impressive that what I call the
'morality of the hobbyist contributor'

83
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
still lives strongly in Debian.

84
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
The people in Debian want to do what is
right for other people -

85
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
their users, co-developers,
co-contributors.

86
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They also volunteer to do that.

87
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
As I said before, that doesn't mean that
they aren't being paid to do their work.

88
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It's the classic free software thing: lots
of people get paid to write free software.

89
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
What I've seen recently, in many free
software projects, is that

90
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
companies have used that. I think
OpenStack is one of the worst examples

91
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
of this. To control the project by hiring
lots of it's developers.

92
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
They have this kindof pull over the
project. I think that a lot of people that

93
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
work at OpenStack would say they are
employers employee first and an

94
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
OpenStack contributor second.

95
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I don't know anyone in Debian who would
not say 'I am a Debian developer' first

96
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
and then I happen to be employed as a
second issue.

97
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Debian is their first priority.
Their job is their second.

98
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That hobbyist culture of 'my volunteer
work matters more to me than

99
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
what actually pays me for a living'
is the kind of mentality that I am such a

100
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
fan of. I try to live that in my own work
as well.

101
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I like interacting with the community.
I usually find conferences very stressful.

102
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
This one I do not find as stressful
other than I'm standing in a room with a

103
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
huge number of people. Other than that
I don't find it stressful

104
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
because this is the kind of community
that thinks that way.

105
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I think a lot of it has to do with the
other structures you have set up around

106
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
yourselves. The idea of having charities
that you work with

107
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
which you have chosen to do a multi
charity situation where you have lots

108
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
around the world that you can interact
with.

109
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
One of them was founded by a Debian
developer initially.

110
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
You reach out to other partnerships or
charities as a non-commercial community

111
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
That allows you to have an infrastructure
that you can rely on that helps

112
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
you maintain that community.
I'm very glad that you do that.

113
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I used to work for the FSF and am still on
the board of directors.

114
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Early in the project Debian was more or
less a GNU project for a while.

115
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
It was part of the FSF. I know that
relationship has never been perfect

116
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
sometimes rocky and sometimes better,
but the FSF saw this in Debian too

117
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
very early on. (08:07)