On April fourth, the preliminary discussion was completed, and voting commenced to determine the official stance of the Debian project regarding Richard Stallman's return as head of the Free Software Foundation. The voting will last for two weeks, until April 17.
The voting was initially initiated by Canonical employee Steve Langasek, who proposed for ratification the first version of a statement (calling for the resignation of the FSF board and supporting an open letter against Stallman). However, according to public discussion procedures, representatives from the Debian community proposed alternative statements:
- Call for Stallman's resignation only.
- Limit interaction with the FSF while Stallman is at the helm of the organization.
- Call on the FSF to increase the transparency of its governance processes (the initiative group proposing this point claims there is a "lack of transparency" and that the community's opinion was ignored regarding Stallman's return).
- Support Stallman's return and, on behalf of the project, sign an open letter in support of Stallman.
- Vehemently condemn the "witch hunt" being conducted against Richard Stallman, the FSF board, and the entire organization as a whole.
- Publish no official statement regarding the situation with Stallman and the FSF.
Additionally, it can be noted that the number of signatures on the letter supporting Stallman reached 5,593, while the letter against Stallman had 3,012 signatures (someone withdrew their signature, as it was 3,013 on Saturday morning).
Source: opennet.ru
