The OpenBeOS team recently had their first internal release. It is described on their project news page with the quote, "Baby steps along the path to glory..."

This first release is intended to be installed on top of an existing 5.03 installation, containing "the most up-to-date versions of OpenTracker and the Mail Daemon Replacement, and several replacement Preferences apps (Keyboard, Menu, Mouse, Screen, VirtualMemory, and Workspaces)."

The release produced a little friction among some of the OpenBeOS mailing list members, as the announcement was found on external websites before being posted internally on the mailing list. A brief sampling of th exchange follows, focusing mainly on project leader Michael Phipps' explanation.

Their project page describes OpenBeOS:

"OpenBeOS is a project dedicated to the re-creation, followed by the extension, of the BeOS."

"Individual servers and APIs (known as kits) are being re-written from scratch by an enthusiastic team of volunteers who want to continue the revolution started by Be Inc. The kernel is being based on NewOS, a microkernel written by a former Be engineer, and adapted by a dedicated team of hard core programmers."

From: Michael Phipps
To: openbeos at freelists.org
Subject: [openbeos] Re: Team Leaders
Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 13:15:35 -0500

>Interesting to read indeed...
>Now that wouldn't have happened if those almighty teamleaders wouldn't discuss 
>and decide everything privately.

A number of people seem to have this *vastly* mistaken impression and I want to 
nip it right now. Team leaders are servants. Very simple concept. We aren't 
people who enjoy wielding power. We are a dedicated group of people who have 
signed on to do *EXTRA* work. 

To track the state of modules/kits and be sure that things are getting done. 
To do the "paperwork" of getting things on the website, sourceforge, etc. To 
see what is not getting done and get people assigned. Woo hoo! We are just a 
boatload of fun!

We are a small group who critiques each other freely. Something that can not, 
should not and will not happen on the main (OBOS) list. We volunteer for admin 
because we have a passion to have things get done and are willing to do extra 
work to make sure that they do. Not to have every thing we do criticized in 
front of 450 people.

Yes, we make decisions. Pretty darn few. A lot less than you probably think. 
Many things are just "done", then adopted if they work out. Prime example - 
our first web site. The site was written, then sent to me as a completed work. 
Another example - "our" IRC channel. Someone chose that, and it just caught on. 
There was not a dark, secret meeding of team leaders in hooded robes who vote 
in a dark room. 

OBOS is a project founded on results. If you want respect, or more "power", 
such as it is, in the organization, then do more work. Very simple. I know I
will forget some people, but here are some examples of people who have stepped 
up and done prodigious work: Ithamar, Aaron, Daniel, Axel, Bruno, DarkWyrm, 
Erik, Tyler, Jason VanDerMark, Marcus, David Reid and more. These are people 
to whom I will look for help and listen to for advice. They work like animals 
and produce great work. Most of them are team leaders. That isn't a coincidence. 
They do the most work and get the most credit, recognition, etc.

I don't know, folks. If you think that Linus and Alan Cox share every email that
they write to each other, I would be very surprised. Or if the patch acceptance 
group of BSD land doesn't have a mailing list, I would be surprised. 

Anyway. Back to work for me...



From: Michael Noisternig
Subject: [openbeos] Re: Team Leaders
Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 23:40:50 +0100

Sorry if I over-reacted a bit in the way that I sent my critics to the public 
mailing list, but it isn't so much different from hearing about a obos release 
the first time on public websites. Why didn't you tell us on this mailing list 
that you wanted to do a release? Even some developers of these apps didn't know 
there apps where released. Hey, we are subscribed to a *developer* mailing list, 
so why aren't we informed here instead of reading about it on public websites? 

read on...

[quoted email above]

First, being a team leader was a matter of "first come, first have it". They 
weren't choosen to be team leaders because they have themselves qualified in 
a competition. Now please noone get me wrong, I'm sure all team leaders are 
doing great work, because they all decided to take that position out of passion 
the this project. I really don't want to blame anyone. And I don't grasp for their 
position. All I wanted to do is express my thoughts (and emotions) on what happened. 




From: Michael Phipps
Subject: [openbeos] Re: Team Leaders
Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 20:29:45 -0500

A number of reasons. 
First off, this is *NOT* a developer mailing list, as you assert below. There are > 450 
people on here. I promise you, if we had 450 developers, we would be done with R2 by now. 
:-) Secondly, this was/is a first release. *NOTHING* went according to plan. Just as I 
planned. :-) I know that there are a number of people on this list who are members of the 
BeOS media. And if I said "Hey - there will be a release on 2/14", then nothing happened, 
we would have *0* credability left. Now, I know that this release is a disappointment to 
many. But it is a release, of sorts. The next one will be better in every way. Be aware 
that there are various reasons for the quality. All of those issues have been noted and 
will be corrected for next time. It is not our job to point fingers. And honestly, there 
is only one person who knows the whole story about the release. He is also the guy who 
takes the responsibility. Me. Don't even ask whose fault it is. Blame me. Because, truth 
be told, that is what it means to be a leader. You get all the praise (which you then 
double in quantity and heap on the people who made it happen) and all of the blame (which 
you swallow with sufficient quantities of Milk of Magnesia). So any quality issues are all 
my fault. Things released that shouldn't have been? All me. Don't like the packaging? All me. 
But, you know what? I would still have done it, even had I known. We did something that most 
open source projects never do. We shipped something. And we have a goal (see below) and a 
plan, of sorts, to get there. None of our releases would be perfect. If anyone on this list 
was ever part of a Be beta program, feel free to tell us how perfect their beta releases were. 
:-)

Our *GOAL*, and I have a nervous, queasy feeling even saying this, is to have another release 
in about a month. And every month, around the middle of the month, do another release. Up 
until R1 ships. Then, we will see. THAT IS NOT A PROMISE! It is a goal. An ideal situation. 

>Even some developers of these apps didn't know there apps where released. Hey, we are 
>subscribed to a *developer* mailing list, so why aren't we informed here instead of 
>reading about it on public websites? 

Honestly, because after all the hours of work at my real job, plus about 8 hours of 
building the release, I went to bed. :-/

>read on...
>First, being a team leader was a matter of "first come, first have it". They weren't 
>choosen to be team leaders because they have themselves qualified in a competition. 
>Now please noone get me wrong, I'm sure all team leaders are doing great work, because 
>they all decided to take that position out of passion the this project. I really don't 
>want to blame anyone. And I don't grasp for their position. All I wanted to do is express
>my thoughts (and emotions) on what happened. 

I am very curious as to your basis for this. See - I picked the team leaders. And I know 
what my thought process was. And I have never explained it to anyone, publically. It really 
has nothing to do with first come, first served. Although there were cases where a person 
came along AFTER I had chosen a team lead who I thought might have made a good team lead, too. 
But I did not just throw the first person into the hole. 

I looked for people (at least, according to their emails) who had leadership experience, who 
were knowledgable, who seemed mature enough (no 313373 c0derz), etc. Looking at the list, and 
the results, I don't think that the choices were all that bad.


From: Michael Phipps
Subject: [openbeos] Re: Team Leaders
Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 19:06:48 -0500

>I think Michael is doing a super-human job.  No need to punish him for what
>seemed to be a collective decision by all team leaders.  Personally, I think
>the release was "a good thing", on several levels.
>Take care.

Thanks, to all who have had kind words. :-) They are appreciated. More than you know.

I don't want to misrepresent this, though. Not all of the team leaders agreed. Some did, some 
didn't. Some wanted more polish and shine. Others thought that putting something out was more 
important. 

I made the final decision. Right or wrong. We have learned a *TON*. No one has lost their hard 
drive. IF it looks to some like we are "unprofessional", well, we will have to show them better 
next time. 

If you like this release, cool. Be proud. If not, contribute more, so that it won't be me 
sweating