Open Stack

On 2014-08-14 09:33:20 -0400 (-0400), Russell Bryant wrote:
[...]
> Another issue is that some folks are just fundamentally opposed to
> using Google
[...]

I think that's a shallow depiction of the issue. I'm sure *some*
people really do just avoid Google specifically, but a bigger
concern should be around the statement our use of those services
presents to the rest of the World. By using commercial solutions
because the open alternatives aren't as useful/featureful/stable, we
rob those projects of a potential larger user community which could
help them achieve greater momentum and eventually dominate their
respective technologies.

Would we, as a community, rather see OpenStack used in production
and improved when it has bugs/lacks features? Or should users just
view it as a cheap lab platform instead, and then pay for "solid"
proprietary solutions to their production needs? I'm glad a lot of
people think using and improving OpenStack, even when there might
sometimes be easier/simpler closed alternatives, is worth the
long-term investment.

We, as visible leaders among the greater free software community,
should think very hard when making the choice not to extend this
same courtesy and consideration to other projects who may lack our
extraordinary base of resources. Through our example as a project,
we have the potential to improve things for open/free software
communities far beyond our own.

Of course I'm not a nova core reviewer and have never attended a
nova mid-cycle meetup, so I really have no say in how you conduct
your remote participation. But I do hope you'll consider,
collectively, that focusing on immediate convenience for your own
community can have negative longer-term consequences as you (whether
consciously or not) promote the use of proprietary solutions to your
needs rather than embracing less convenient free and open options
which may still require improvement.
-- 
Jeremy Stanley