Debian和Ubuntu：衝突中共存

　　It's considered a good thing that a free software project never really has to die - if the person who started it gives up, another can always take the code and run with it.

　　人們常常認為一個開源軟體工程的優點之一就是不會徹底的消失的。一旦某個人開放了代碼，其他人就可以獲得和利用它。

　　However at times the business of basing one project on an existing one does tend to cause some friction. And this is more so when the projects are as visible and high-profile as Debian GNU/Linux and Ubuntu.

　　但是一個以存在的項目為基礎的項目往往與其原始項目產生矛盾。而且隨著項目名聲擴大，衝突也越來越多，例如Debian和Ubuntu。

　　Debian is a free software project that began in 1993 - it has its own guidelines, a social contract, and puts out a high-quality distribution. As the developers are all volunteers, there is no fixed timeline for releases. While several other Linux distributions have used Debian as their base, none has gained so much prominence as Ubuntu, a project that began in 2004 and is now arguably the most popular among beginners and intermediate-level users.

　　Debian項目始與1993年。它有它自己的方針和政策來指導一套高質量的版本的發行。因為所有的開發者都是自願人員，所以Debian沒有固定的發行時間表。有數個其他發行版是以Debian為基礎開發的，但它們都顯得默默無聞——除了Ubuntu。這個始於2004年的項目現在毫無疑問的成為在初學者和中等水平用戶中最流行的版本。

　　The Ubuntu developers are all paid for their work. Some of them are former Debian developers; there are some who contribute to both distributions. The Ubuntu project is owned by Mark Shuttleworth, a former Debian developer who made his pile by founding Thawte, a company which provided digital certificates and internet privacy. He sold the company to VeriSign in 1999.

　　與Debian不同，Ubuntu開發人員的工作被支付以報酬。他們中的一些人是以前Debian的開發人員；也有一些人同時服務於兩個項目。 Ubuntu項目的發起人是Mark Shuttleworth，一位前Debian開發人員。他創立Thawte公司提供數字認證和網路安全服務。1999年他把公司賣給了Verisign 而成億萬富翁。

　　Ubuntu is based on the unstable branch of Debian; one of its advantages has been that with paid developers, it has been able to promise and put out a release every six months. Shuttleworth has made no secret about the fact that while Ubuntu will be free, the company behind it, Canonical, will provide support at a cost. By contrast, Debian's release schedule is based on the principle that something will be released when it is ready; the last release, Sarge, came out in mid-2005, nearly 3-1/2 years after the previous release.

　　Ubuntu在Debian開發版基礎上開發。它的優勢之一是其全職的研發人員，這可以使Ubuntu可以許諾以六個月的周期發布新版本。 Shuttleworth已經公開表示雖然Ubuntu是免費的，但其創立的Canonical公司將會以成本價格提供技術服務支持。相反，Debian 的發布時間表的觀念是什麼時候準備好，什麼時候發布。其在2005年中代號Sarge的最新版的發布是在前一個版本發布的三年半以後。

　　Debian's decision-making is done with all developers contributing if they wish; in the case of Ubuntu, Shuttleworth is the final authority when sticking points arise. At times, seemingly pointless flamewars erupt on Debian mailing lists and go on for days.

　　Debian的決策過程是所有開發者共同參與的，採取自願原則。而在Ubuntu,一旦決策出現僵局，Shuttleworth就成為最後的決策者。而Debian的郵件列表上常常會爆發激烈的辯論——這些問題往往是無關緊要。而且這種辯論會持續很長時間。

　　In recent days, the differences between the two groups has been brought into focus by the resignation of Mark Garrett from the Debian project. Garrett had been a developer for four years and was one of those who threw his hat in the ring for the post of project leader last year. (Australian Anthony Towns won the election for leader). Garrett made a public statement about leaving in which he praised the more rigid structure of Ubuntu; in his own words "having one person who can make arbitrary decisions and whose word is effectively law probably helps in many cases."

　　最近兩個項目的不同之處由於Mark Garrett離開Debian項目而成為公眾焦點。Garrett做了四年的開發工作，是去年離開項目領導人之一。(澳大利亞的Anthony Towns被選為新的領導人。)Garrett發布了一份辭職聲明。在聲明中，他非常讚賞Ubuntu的嚴格的組織結構。用他的話說：“有一個具有獨裁的的領導權和話語權的人對很多事情都會有很大幫助。”

　　(The irony of Garrett's words is that here we have a developer of free software actually expressing a preference for the what appears to be more of a "cathedral" model of development. The word "cathedral" was coined by open source advocate Eric S. Raymond to characterise the way proprietary software development took place - he contrasted it with what he called the "bazaar" model. The best example of the latter, Raymond postulated, was the Linux kernel.)

　　(Garrett這段話實際上諷刺地表達了一個開源程序員對更多的屬於“大教堂”開發模式中的特徵的認同。“大教堂”這個詞由開源領袖 Erics.Raymond用來概括私有軟體的開發模式而得名。他用他稱為“集市”模式來與之對比。后一種模式最好的例子就是Linux核心的開發。)

　　Friction between Debian and Ubuntu has been developing for some time; last year, the founder of the Debian project, Ian Murdock, was concerned enough to call for timely release cycles by the Debian project. He also urged that an attempt be made to keep the growing family of Debian derivatives united around the common core of the distribution.

　　此後Debian和Ubuntu之間的摩擦越來越大。關注到這一變化的Debian項目創始人Ian Murdock號召讓Debian與Ubuntu有一個規律的發布周期。同時他希望所有的數量在不斷增加的Debian派生版本能夠具有共同的核心部分。

　　At least some Debian developers appear to think that Ubuntu takes more than it gives; this led in part to some wearing T-shirts with the words "F--- Ubuntu" at the annual Debian conference in Mexico this year. Some of the common frustrations felt by the Debian crowd were outlined by long-standing Debian developer Martin Krafft in a long posting in his blog soon after the conference. And another Debian veteran Joey Hess has voiced fears that Ubuntu is reducing Debian to "a supermarket of components."

　　最近，一些Debian的開發者開始認為Ubuntu貢獻出來的遠遠小與它拿走的。於是在今年的在墨西哥舉行的Debian年度會議上，一些憤怒的人襯衫上寫著“F--- Ubuntu”。長期從事Debian開發工作的Martin Krafft在會議后在博客發表一個長長的貼子概括了Debian社區所共同感受到的不滿。另一名開發者Joey Hess也公開對Ubuntu正在把Debian變成一個“組件超級市場”而感到憂慮。

　　Elaborating on this, Hess wrote: "My main motive for contributing to Debian is to make Debian the best distro I can; I don't mind if others use that work, especially if stuff gets contributed back. But it's long been clear to me that the most important added value to Debian is not adding another package to the shelf, but finding new ways to integrate our software together."

　　Hess詳細的說道：“我致力於Debian的主要目的就是進我所能使Debian成最好的發行版。我並不介意其他人使用我的工作成果，特別是這種使用能夠獲得更多的開源成果。但是很長時間才讓我明白最重要的並不是為Debian增加某個軟體包，而是找到一種新的方法整合我們的軟體。”

　　He went on to say: "...contributing individual patches back to Debian is simply not enough for Debian to share Ubuntu's improvements. It puts Debian at best in the position of wasting a lot of time trying to play catch-up and figure out how a collection of patches to different packages fits together into a coherent overall improvement."

　　他接著說道：“...，向Debian貢獻獨立補丁完全不能使Debian共享Ubuntu的組件。這使得Debian浪費大量的時間來做一個追趕的角色，而不是解決怎樣在不同的軟體包種選擇一套合適的軟體來組和在一起從而得到完整的全面的提高。”

　　How the differences will be resolved remains to be seen. But everyone who has any interest in either camp would surely be hoping that things will be worked out in a mature manner in such a way that both projects can move forward.

　　怎樣解決分歧還有待於進一步觀察。但是對於致力於任何一個陣營的人都希望能找到一種適當的方法來促進兩個項目的共同進步。

　　Disclosure: the author has been a user of Debian for the last six years.

　　註：作者是一位有著六年歷史的Debian用戶。

原文鏈接：http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/5634/997/