120 lines
6.1 KiB
Markdown
120 lines
6.1 KiB
Markdown
% swiftgeek and Andrew Robbins removed from the Libreboot project
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% Leah Rowe
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% 30 March 2021
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Introduction
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============
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As the title suggests, Andrew Robbins and swiftgeek (Sebastian Grzywna) are no
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longer a part of the Libreboot project. While I am sad to see them go, I say
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one thing freely: I wish both of them well. I'm extremely grateful for the work
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that they have done over the years; their passion, their burning desire to help
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others and their energy for Free Software is inspiring. Swiftgeek in particular
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has given me a lot of advice on things over the years. I *hope that they do*
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continue their work, and I've already told swiftgeek that I will provide him
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with the money/resources if he needs it, to help him set up physical hosting
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infrastructure for a new project forked from Libreboot. I will do it without a
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moment's hesitation.
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I also told swiftgeek that I would be happy to continue working with him, if
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he wished. So far I have not yet spoken to Andrew, but he learned of my recent
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decisions and has now denounced me on his website; I am not angry with him for
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this, in fact I would be angry if I were him. I will address his article later
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in this post. Unfortunately, Andrew's article means that I do not wish to talk
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to him anymore.
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Their work that they did in Libreboot is now archived. It will be preserved, in
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the Git repository, for historical purposes. If they wish to continue with the
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development on their version of libreboot, they may do so; in fact, I would not
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want to stop them! I merely disagreed on a lot of technical levels with the
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way their *build system* (the Paper build system) was implemented. Their build
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system is, as of today, an unfinished re-write of Libreboot that began in 2016
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by PaulK when he was a Libreboot project member, then continued in 2017 by
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Andrew Robbins under the guidance of swiftgeek.
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On 28 March 2021, I decided that I was nonetheless unhappy with their progress;
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they had failed to produce a release in the last few years, and my gut instinct
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told me that they would not make a new release at all for at least another few
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year. They would have kept being awesome, implementing all kinds of cool
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whacky features but their *Paper build system* (which is what it's called, the
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version they worked on) would have only got endlessly more complex. I did not
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want their code in Libreboot anymore.
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In [my last post earlier today](libreboot202104xx.md) I announced the
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extensive amounts of work that I've done on coreboot and related software, in
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preparation for a new Libreboot release; in that post, I described all of the
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major improvements and what is left to be done for the next Libreboot release
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ETA late April 2021 / early June 2021. I only started this work in early
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December 2020; I scrapped the re-write (Paper build system) and continued where
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I left off back in September 2016, continuing development
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of *lbmk* (libreboot-make). lbmk is much simpler and easier to maintain than
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Paper, and my argument to swiftgeek has always been that it could easily
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implement all of the advanced features Paper has (Paper is badly designed,
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but has nice features). I will indeed be doing this! For example: uboot
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integration in Libreboot, for ARM devices.
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In 5 months I've made a lot of progress; I am
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mere *weeks* away from having a totally new Libreboot release ready.
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Nothing has changed since that last post, in fact it's even still the same day,
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and the above is merely a summary, but a development has happened:
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Andrew's article
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----------------
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Andrew Robbins is rightly angry at me right now. I do not expect his
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forgiveness ever, but I would like to address some of the points he has made in
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an article about me. The article is here:
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http://web.archive.org/web/20210330215036/https://www.andrewrobbins.info/libreboot.html
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The only point I wish to address is:
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Yes, I made an arrangement with Andrew to set up an LLC for himself in
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USA (LLC = limited liability company). I told him that I would be shipping him
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laptops that I buy from USA suppliers, then he would install libreboot on those
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and ship them to my USA customer, and I would pay him 75% of the additional
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profits generated (because it's sales I wouldn't otherwise get: the 25% would
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cover my admin fees and overheads, while he gets the lion share of the profit).
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In Andrew's article, he says that I was *stringing him along* so let me be
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clear: although Andrew clearly no longer trusts me, I am still willing to do
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this with him. I told him in the beginning that it had nothing to do with his
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position in the Libreboot project; it just made good business sense, and it
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still does. I would not reduce my workload by doing this with him: I would
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keep my workload the same while giving *him* a workload for him to make his
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own money.
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Many months ago on IRC, I also proposed to swiftgeek that we start a repair
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company. Similar to Louis Rossman's macbook repair company, but for Thinkpads;
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swiftgeek has great knowledge of ThinkPad repair, and I could find him
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customers.
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I understand Andrew's anger, and fully expected it. I did not take the
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decisions I made in Libreboot lightly; I made those decisions because I think
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they were (are) the right decisions to make, for the good of the project.
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When I bring that new release out, I will be re-opening the Libreboot
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infrastructure for new outside contributors, including those who wish to have
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review/push/pull access. I intend to move away from the current notabug.org
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Git hosting and switch to a self-hosted GitLab CE instance.
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Needless to say, I reject Andrew's calls for me to hand over control of the
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Libreboot project. I'm back, and I have great plans for the project. I intend
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to implement them all, fully.
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Closing remarks
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---------------
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I will say once again:
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I wish swiftgeek and Andrew all the best, in whatever they choose to do.
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Sadly, I know all too well that Andrew and Swiftgeek will never trust me; such
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is even stated in Andrew's article.
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Their work in Libreboot's Git repository will be fully preserved. They are free
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to continue their work, and I hope they succeed! Another coreboot distro can
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only be a good thing!
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I have nothing else to say. I wasn't sure whether I should address any of this
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at all, but I think I made the right choice.
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