UpsideToday talks with VA Linux’s John T. Hall about the creation of SourceForge, and takes a look at the company’s past and possible future (Disclosure: VA Linux owns NewsForge).

– By Grant Gross –

An Internet voting project at the the free software group FreeDevelopers.net is changing directions over an argument about when to release the source code for the project’s major building block, but organizers are already moving on.

Marilyn Davis, developer of the Clerk software module that FreeDevelopers.net was basing its eVote project on, has resigned as leader of the project because, she said earlier this week, “clearly this list has turned into a lynch mob, unhappy that they were not able to make me release the code” despite an agreement from FreeDevelopers to start the project without releasing the code. Davis had concerns that an early release of the code to the GNU General Public License could allow nefarious people to manipulate votes.

While discussion was heated earlier in the week, Davis ultimately decided to remain on the eVote project’s discussion list, and she expressed hope that her project, back to being hosted at deliberate.com, can be merged with the FreeDevelopers.net project sometime in the future. “You can still believe me that a network layer will release the [Clerk’s] source out of beta and then
FreeDev can … improve each and every corner of what I’ve done,” she wrote to the list Thursday evening. “As the Clerk’s mama, I just need to bring forth the whole infant, no preemies … The folks here don’t want the FreeDev name on unreleased source.That’s fair. And I don’t want responsibility for non-Clerk projects. That’s fair.”

In the meantime, coders on the FreeDevelopers.net discussion list are turning to deciding who can vote on what to do next in FreeDev’s democratic model, and how to distinguish interested developers from what some on the list have called the “enemy,” those who might try to sidetrack the project and from those those reading the discussion list for entertainment or news value. The group continues to discuss working with FREE (Free Referenda & Elections Electronically), a Java-based free software project.

Tony Stanco, founder of FreeDevelopers.net, says he’s not sure what the project’s next move is, as FreeDev’s democratic wheels turn, but he emphasizes that the eVote project is not a strategic part of FreeDev’s success. “It is a little like watching a school of fish,” he writes, adding a smiley wink. “They go where they want to go … However, I do think that if I get them a real voting project to work on it will focus their minds. And I was talking to someone on Capitol Hill
about it last night, but I also have to make sure that they can work as a team first, before I start making promises to people on the Hill.

“Seriously, I think we are doing fine, we just have to let this tree mature a little longer before we try to harvest the fruit,” he adds.

The argument over releasing the Clerk’s code resurfaced earlier this week after a flare up in November. Amid calls to release the code, Stanco tried to broker a compromise, which he defended as reasonable. But Davis again declined to release the voting system’s code before she could add a network layer to it.

During the heat of the debate, one list member wrote: “In spite of repeated requests [Davis] failed to make the code of Clerk GPL. She has not so far seriously discussed the design and architecture of the Clerk.”

Stanco wrote to the list during the heat of the argument that he’s learned one lesson: “This is the first and last time I will ever compromise on the GPL. If that means we have to re-write every line of proprietary code, so be it.”

But later in the week, he echoed Davis’ desire to keep working together. “We do want her to continue to help bring free democracy software to the world,’ he says. “I get the feeling that she really wants us to use eVote, but that she needs help in ‘leading’ the project. But the ‘project
leader’ title was always a misnomer because we are a democracy and leading is leading by ideas, not by hierarchy, if you know what I mean.”

Davis says she’ll continue working on eVote with the several volunteers who have a history with the project. She’s finishing a paper on eVote for a Linux magazine during the deliberate.com banner. “It’s my hobby. It’s a lifelong project. I’m not by myself.”

NewsForge editors read and respond to comments posted on our discussion page.

From the current issue of LinuxJournal: “Some of us just can’t seem to get enough. Whether it be food, drink, and um, or, you know…stuff. For some people, that’s true of their desktops. It is with this
rather fumbled introduction that I welcome you, one and all, to yet another week of gratuitous window dressing here at the ‘SysAdmin’s Corner’, where too much of
a good thing is just about right.”

Michael Hall at LinuxPlanet writes: “Last week LinuxPlanet editor Kevin Reichard wrote a hotly debated note on the underlying issues behind
the dearth of commercial applications for Linux. At the root of his argument is an understanding shared
by a lot of Linux observers: the confusion between free software and free beer, and how little many
commercial vendors feel they can trust our community to do the right thing given the opportunity to
just take something.”

ZDCOUK reports that fans of rock band Rage Against The Machine began reporting
that they were banned from Napster early Thursday morning. As
was the case with people trading Metallica and Dr. Dre songs,
Napster members were blocked from logging on and sent instead
to a Web page saying they had been identified as probable
copyright infringers.

Newsforge reader Rikard Anglerud writes: “We here at rawmeat.org have reviewed all the cd players we could find for linux. With all the players that exist we hope that this will make it easier for you to find one that you like (and one that’s better than the players shipped with kde or gnome).”

From ZDCOUK: “After admitting that it “missed the boat” in adopting recordable CD
technology for its hardware, Apple is reportedly looking at options
for incorporating CD-ReWritable drives into the next crop of
Macs.”

Hoping to catch the Net’s latest technology trend, Sun
Microsystems is quietly creating a team of engineers with
hopes of merging Java and the file-swapping technology that
brought Napster to the music-loving masses, reports ZDCOUK.

“The aim of this document is to help you have a working webcam in just a few hours. This … involves re-compiling your kernel. This isn’t nearly as hard as it sounds. If you’re kind of uncomfortable with the idea yet, read either the Kernel Compiling NHF or the Kernel-HOWTO. In my case I was forced to use the 2.2.17 backport, due to the fact that 2.4.0-test9 broke a lot of USB serial stuff (I need *working* USB for my Handspring Visor to sync via USB in Linux.) and at the time of this writing namesys hadn’t released a patch for ReiserFS for 2.4.0-test10.” Check it out at Linuxnewbie.org. –Sensei

MSNBC: “While most Americans were relaxing and
eating leftover turkey on the Sunday after
Thanksgiving, Chuck Mefford was spending
hours trying to fix his Palm V handheld
computer.”