Open Stack

On 2019-05-31 07:50:45 -0400 (-0400), Doug Hellmann wrote:
[...]
> I'm tired of perpetuating the idea that "operators" cannot (or
> should not) be "contributors" to openstack/. They *must* be
> contributors, because that's the only way open source works over
> the log term.

As I said in my previous post, OpenStack was built by its operators
and continues to be maintained by them. That there are some in our
midst who feel separate from and disenfranchised by the process
through which OpenStack is developed is disappointing, but I don't
believe they are representative of OpenStack operators as a whole. I
would further argue that operators of OpenStack are and have always
been its primary contributors. Following the true spirit of open
source, operators got together and built automation they needed to
make their jobs easier (or even possible).

To me a key signal of this heritage was the early choice to
standardize on Python, a runtime-interpreted scripting language
enforcing readability, historically used by operators for automating
systems administration tasks. This was almost certainly not a
coincidence. Find a bug? You can read the source code right there on
the server's filesystem, modify it in place, test that it's fixed
without having to manually recompile anything, and then share the
solution with the community. (Tweaking software in production is of
course usually not the *best* way to fix bugs, but when you're in a
tight spot because it's 3am and customers are blowing up the support
line and your pager won't shut up, it's attractive and expedient.)

We should celebrate this heritage, and always remind ourselves that
OpenStack emerged out of a shared desire for operational automation.
To assume that operators are not the people making OpenStack day in
and day out is to discredit the work we all do. "Operators" aren't
some separate set of people from "developers." Operators are us.
-- 
Jeremy Stanley
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