New Debian leader brings an unusual trait to the job: humility

Tille was declared the winner of the annual election, in a two-person race, earlier this week.

In the election, he was chosen by the majority, succeeding Jonathan Carter, a South African developer who served as DPL for four years.

In his first mail to the Debian Community as DPL, he demonstrated respect for the other candidate Sruthi Chandran and offered co-operation with her.

Tille comes across as a humble individual, something that is rare in the tech arena which is full of bloated egos.

{loadposition sam08}One of his answers to iTWire's queries sums him up best: that he wanted to highlight the downsides of running for DPL "because it's true and I wanted to say the truth to people who might vote for me.

"As DPL, I strive to maintain the highest level of transparency. Expressing my doubts is integral to providing a clear understanding of my motivations."

His answers to iTWire's questions are given below in full:

In your statement about your intentions to run for DPL, you mentioned that you had waited 25 years before making a bid to lead the project. Is there some reason for this?

I love Debian because it enables me, as a volunteer, to choose the tasks I love to do. Luckily, there are so many challenging tasks I have enjoyed over the years. I have mostly worked in the background – although making some presentations in various talks has occasionally brought me into the spotlight. Being in the spotlight is something I really don't enjoy, which was one reason I resisted for years when my Debian friends suggested that I run for DPL.

I also anticipate that there are several non-technical tasks awaiting the DPL, which may not be as pleasant as the work I am currently doing in Debian. However, I approach these challenges with optimism. The prospect of establishing a DPL advisory board, from which I can seek guidance and support in navigating difficult questions, alleviates any apprehension I may have about these tasks.

Finally, I am a bit concerned about the workload I'll leave to my teammates since I plan to stop my uploading work to fully concentrate on DPL tasks.

As you point out, your main interest has been the Debian Med project. Why this particular subject?

It was somehow an "accident" that I became a Debian developer at all. In 1997, I found myself reliant on the WordNet package, which had been orphaned by its maintainer. At the time, this neglect posed a risk of the package being removed entirely. I usually follow the principle: "If something needs doing and no-one else is stepping up, I'll take the plunge myself." This fits perfectly well with the Do-O-Cracy principle in Debian. Thus, I embarked on the task of maintaining my first package, simply by pursuing what needed to be done.

Tille has been around Debian a long time – and his collection of T-shirts from the Debconfs down the years is testimony to that. Supplied

Once I became a Debian Developer, attending DebConf 0 and 1 in Bordeaux was a great experience for me. Given my occupation at a medical institute, my interest naturally gravitated towards exploring Free Software relevant to bio-informatics and medical care. Purely by chance, I stumbled upon a French developer in the midst of translating complex installation instructions for medical software. It immediately struck me: rather than translating instructions into different languages, the software should be packaged for easier deployment. This realisation inspired my first presentation, which laid the foundation for what later became Debian Med.

While I work in a medical institute, my professional background lies in physics and IT science. Admittedly, I lack expertise in bio-informatics and medicine, since I did not study this particular field. Nevertheless, recognising this, my strategy was to diligently work on attracting experts. Fortunately, this approach yielded positive results. Perhaps one of my most significant contributions to Debian was the formation of a team that successfully attracted one Debian Developer per year, despite the somewhat niche nature of the subject matter within the broader Debian universe. I'm more proud about attracting those great contributors than on all the uploads I did.

As I mulled over this idea further, its potential benefits became increasingly clear to me. Not only did it offer a practical way to persuade my employer to consider Debian, but it also struck me as a valuable opportunity to contribute to Debian's expansion. The notion of having a wide range of essential software readily available for my day-to-day work was undeniably appealing. Additionally, I envisioned a future where other developers might follow suit, creating more Blends tailored to their specific fields of expertise. To me, Blends represent the missing link between developers and users, offering specialised software solutions that cater to particular needs.

As a result, I dedicated a portion of my developer time to enhancing the Blends framework. Initially, I focused on integrating tools from other Blends such as Debian Edu, Debian Jr, and Debian GIS, seeking out synergies at a technical level. Additionally, I developed several Web tools to effectively communicate our progress and initiatives to our users. Once this framework was established, I successfully encouraged developers in various specialised fields to create their own Blends. This led to the emergence of new requirements, prompting further enhancements to the framework by others.

I've gone into a bit of detail in this question. I hope it explains why the Debian Med project holds such significance for me. In my perspective, it represents more than just a niche project; it serves as a potential model for inspiring others to extend their outreach to our users on a broader scale.

You are the first candidate I have seen who spoke about the downsides of running for DPL in your platform statement. Any reason for raising these issues?

Because it's true and I wanted to say the truth to people who might vote for me. As DPL, I strive to maintain the highest level of transparency. Expressing my doubts is integral to providing a clear understanding of my motivations.

Given that you admit it might be difficult to achieve much in a single term, does that mean you will run a second time?

I've lived long enough to witness numerous unexpected changes in life. ("Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future!" – Niels Bohr). At the moment, I have no plans to run for a second term. I will reassess this decision at the end of the year when I have a clearer understanding of the responsibilities of the DPL role. So, if you're looking for a definitive answer, check back next year. ?

Can you elaborate a bit on your objectives: reaching out to other distros, preparing for the future, packaging standards and outreach.

My journey with Debian as a user began on a stony trail, navigating specific hardware needs, but it was smoothed by Susan Kleinman. I encountered hardware challenges, and Susan's commitment was evident as she crafted a custom Linux kernel tailored to my personal requirements. She sent me five iterations of dedicated kernels, which I eventually managed to install via floppy disks. I couldn't have asked for better support from any distribution, and I express my sincere gratitude to Susan even after nearly 30 years. This experience solidified my belief that Debian was the right choice for me, and since then, I've never felt the need to explore alternatives.

As a result, my expertise primarily lies within Debian, and I have limited exposure to other distributions or Debian derivatives. However, as DPL, I recognise the importance of comparing with others, learning from their experiences, and identifying synergies to benefit the entire Free Software ecosystem. Ultimately, we are all united in our goal of delivering Free Software to users.

Regarding the part "preparing for the future and packaging standards" of your question, I envision better streamlining of our workflows within Debian. This entails a consistent adoption of our development platform, Salsa - preferably with a standardised layout of the Git repositories. During my campaign, I encountered some developers who raised concerns about my suggestion to use Git repositories consistently on Salsa. As the DPL lacks real power, I understand the importance of working diligently to persuade my fellow developers about the benefits of a common workflow. This includes making processes more standardised and individuals more replaceable, but perhaps even more importantly, smoothing the path for newcomers into Debian.

Similarly I faced even stronger concerns about a stronger focusing on team maintenance. As I wrote above I made outstanding experiences with the Debian Med team. I'd like to say something: "If you don't try you will never know how great its working." But people tried to use the issue you are referring to below[3] as a club that this can't be good. However, I make a great difference between *inviting* people to join a team which builds upon common long term trust and some kind of forcing people together (no matter from what side the force might finally come).

Earlier this year, there was a case of a package becoming compromised and detected just in time to prevent a major security incident. Do you have any comments about how such incidents can be minimised or even prevented altogether?

I believe the most apt quote on this matter comes from my esteemed colleague and renowned purveyor of wisdom within the Debian community, Russ Allbery: "The reality that we are struggling with is that the free software infrastructure on which much of computing runs is massively and painfully underfunded by society as a whole, and is almost entirely dependent on random people maintaining things in their free time because they find it fun, many of whom are close to burnout. This is, in many ways, the true root cause of this entire event."

Or it can be visualised like this. 

I don't believe the DPL possesses the real authority to permanently resolve this social issue. From what I've observed, the problem was promptly identified, and the response from Debian and other distributions appears to have been appropriate, to the best of our knowledge.

In my platform, I discuss the importance of building redundancy, emphasising the need to have multiple individuals assigned to critical tasks from the outset. Interestingly, my proposal sparked considerable debate, particularly in light of the xz issue, which some used as a counter-argument against having multiple individuals involved in critical tasks.

You have mentioned the lack of female developers in the project as also the lack of talent from some regions. How, in your opinion, can these problems be tackled?

I've thought this would have been answered in paragraph "Lower barriers"- at least I had the answer to your question in mind when writing this paragraph.

[The paragraph in question is: As part of my commitment to fostering inclusivity and diversity within the Debian community, I am actively exploring ways to make it easier for newcomers to start contributing. While we have made significant progress in addressing geographic disparities through our translation efforts, there is still room to further strengthen this endeavour.

Therefore, I intend to offer support to the localisation team to ensure that we continue to improve accessibility for contributors from all regions. Additionally, in tackling gender imbalances, it's crucial to acknowledge the various societal factors at play. For instance, I've encountered the argument that in many cultures, women have less leisure time than men, which can hinder their ability to participate in open-source projects. As a potential solution, we might consider introducing tasks such as bug squashing, autopkgtest writing, and other short-term assignments that require minimal time commitments. This approach aims to lower barriers to entry and encourage participation from individuals with diverse backgrounds and time constraints, as these tasks are self-contained and do not necessitate ongoing maintenance.]

I might add that I intend to work closely together with Sruthi Chandran who might be more competent in this field.

You are the first developer I have interviewed who has spoken openly about environmental concerns. Is this because of your location in Germany or other reasons?

I can't speak to whether Germans are inherently more concerned about the environment. However, I have encountered many individuals worldwide, including several Debian contributors, who share similar concerns to mine. Therefore, I do not believe that one's level of concern for the environment is necessarily linked to the country they reside in.

From my personal observations at several DebConfs, I've noticed that many Debian contributors tend to be quite progressive. Anecdotally, it seems that among Debian contributors, there is a higher prevalence of vegans/vegetarians and individuals who abstain from flying compared to the average of society.

Contrary to assumptions based on my location, I believe that Debian itself has instilled in me a problem-solving mindset that I wouldn't have developed without my background in Debian. Consequently, I've applied the Do-O-Cracy principle to non-Debian-related endeavors as well. In my area, a significant amount of wood has perished due to poor forestation management exacerbated by climate crisis. Fortunately, I have access to a substantial number of baby-trees in my own garden, which I had previously discarded on the compost heap. For the past four years, I've been replanting these tiny trees in areas where the original trees have died. In essence, I'm utilising free resources to achieve a goal that benefits society. Additionally, I derive personal satisfaction from watching the trees grow, much like the satisfaction I gain from contributing to a free operating system for the world while also benefitting from having a reliable operating system for my own computer.

Here is the location of more than 3800 trees I've planted. About 1000 are from official tree planting events I've joined but the bigger part is from my and my friends garden wildly grown.

Finally, at the end of your term, what will you look at to consider whether the year has been a success or not?

In my campaign, I conducted some statistical analysis on packages maintained on Salsa versus those maintained elsewhere. At the time, I found that 2368 packages were maintained somewhere else and stated: 'I would like to push the latter number below 2000.' Upon revisiting the query today, I observe that there are only 2315 such packages. It appears that either time is working in my favour or that the discussion during my campaign has yielded its first fruits. Therefore, I believe this goal to be realistic.

I would also like to see an increase in the number of (active) Debian Developers by the end of my term. Considering the progress we've made within the Debian Med team in attracting developers, I am optimistic about achieving this objective. I particularly hope to welcome many non-male individuals as well as people from countries that are either not yet represented on the List of Debian Developers by Country or have a low number of DDs per capita.

Furthermore, I hope to encourage the Debian community to address old bugs, identify de facto orphaned packages, write more autopkgtests, and refine 'smelly packages'— essentially, to enhance Debian quality across various facets.

Finally, I sincerely hope to avoid making significant mistakes during my tenure as DPL. I grow up in a culture where mistakes are accepted and seen as opportunities for improvement, and I am fully prepared to acknowledge and learn from any missteps along the way. While I may not be immune to errors, especially in the early stages of my term, I intend to lean heavily on the wisdom and guidance of experienced developers to minimise the possibility of making serious mistakes.