Anthony Towns
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Anthony Towns is an Australian programmer and the current Debian Project Leader. He is also one of the Debian ftpmasters, secretary of Linux Australia and has been an active member of HUMBUG since the late 1990s in his home down of Brisbane, Queensland.
He was declared as the new Debian Project Leader on April 9th, 2006, succeeding Branden Robinson and began his term on April 19th, 2006. Towns was elected by the second-narrowest ever margin[1] and was the first DPL ever to face a recall vote while in office.[2] Since a great deal of debian work takes place in Europe, Towns created the post of "Debian Second in Charge" (2IC) to lead discussion, support developers, and represent the project in locations which could more easily be reached by the runner-up candidate, Steve McIntyre, than himself.[1]
[edit] Controversy
In September 2006, the Dunc-tank project started a fund-raising programme to help Debian release its next distribution, Etch, on the scheduled date of 4th of December, 2006.[3] Towns's involvement with Dunc-Tank came under severe criticism.[4], including hitherto-unseen calls to end his Debian project leadership[5] to make clear that the Dunc-Tank project was not officially supported by Debian project members. Some developers slowed down their unpaid work on Debian in response to the programme, and Debian "Etch" was not released on schedule as hoped.[6]. Nonetheless, Towns views its outcome as positive,[7], highlighting that Dunc-Tank opposition helped to improve quality of Debian Etch.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Towns, Anthony. Bits from the DPL. Retrieved on February 23, 2007.
- ^ Barbier, Denis. General Resolution: Recall the project leader. Retrieved on February 23, 2007.
- ^ Announcement of Dunc-Tank.org. Retrieved on February 23, 2007.
- ^ Vaughan-Nichols, Steven J.. Is Debian Dying?. Retrieved on February 23, 2007.
- ^ Barbier, Denis. Proposal: Recall the Project Leader. Retrieved on February 23, 2007.
- ^ Vaughan-Nichols, Steven J.. Disgruntled Debian developers delay Etch. Retrieved on February 23, 2007.
- ^ Tay, Liz. Dunc-Tank: Success or failure?. Retrieved on February 23, 2007.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Branden Robinson |
Debian Project Leader April 2006 – present |
Incumbent |
 |
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