Re: OT: Roland Puntaier / "getmail6" drama

Hey Francesco,

Sorry, but I disagree on the necessity to change the name… what’s more important? Charles ego, or continuity for the users of the software? Personally, I think it's the continuity. You have hundreds of users of the software out in the real world, possibly with mission critical applications, and I would consider them first.

Keeping at least a close link to the previous name ensures the users understand the upgrade path, and aren’t left “lost” on getmail5, looking for but not finding the python3 version they need.

Personally I think getmail-ng or something like that would have been a better choice than getmail6, since having the version number in the name will lead to its own set of confusing circumstances (like having getmail5 v6 and getmail6 v5 - kind of silly). Or how about getmail-py3 ?

Suggesting Charles retire was of course me being provocative (and hypocritical, since its also rude of me) - of course it's clear to me he will do exactly what he wants. But bullies and rude people deserve a bit of pushback, IMHO. No need to stand for bad behavior, even if we’re all adults.

Regards,

Richard





> On Oct 27, 2021, at 7:42 PM, Francesco Ariis <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Dear Richard,
> 
> Il 27 ottobre 2021 alle 19:18 Richard Unger ha scritto:
>> Had Charles been easier to work with, I am sure Roland would have managed
>> this in a more cooperative way, but given the way things are, we should
>> thank him for taking on this effort, and not bash him for it.
> 
> But this is not about Charles being grumpy (he is, and helpful too), or
> a mismatch of communication styles (there are) or development methods, or
> software for the 21st century.
> 
> The thing Charles is asking is «please use another name which won’t cause
> collisions». How difficult can it be to do that, but more importantly
> how difficult is it to understand why a developer would be concerned about
> something not developed by him being mistakenly attributed to him?
> 
>> Such is the nature of open source: if the original developers aren’t
>> servicing the community, someone else can step up, and this is what
>> Roland did.
> 
> Without squatting namespace would have been better, even though I am
> happy that someone is looking into python3 porting.
> 
>> Perhaps after 23 years it is time tor Charles to retire, and hand the
>> getmail torch on to those who want to make it work well with current
>> systems/distros. In this way, he would also not be bothered by the
>> support requests any more.
> 
> Perhaps after 23 years Charles can and will decide by himself; Roland
> et al. are free to clone the repo, slap a new name on it, spam it
> everywhere.
> I use numerous programs which are derived from other unmaintained apps —
> not that getmail is unmaintained —, each fork had the common sense
> to change its name (e.g. newsbeuter → newsboat).
> 
> I am pretty sure that everything can be solved amicably and productively
> and eventually there will be a Big Merge™. The first step is a simple,
> painless, overt «this is not getmail» note.
> —F
> 
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