2.2 KiB
On Meritocracy
Meritocracy has turned into something else in recent years.
Too many projects accept or reject contributions based entirely off who is making the contribution, or what company they work for, or mix up contribution merit with appeal to group politics, or a contributor's social status, or, the relationship between those projects and the developer's employer.
This creates many problems that distract from the goal of the F/OSS movement -- from elitism, exclusive cliques and subcultures, cronyism, vulnerability to project hijacking by sponsor interest, and more, ultimately resulting in the stifling of innovation, and, often, the derailment of project development to create dependencies on external projects.
Meritocracy is well intended, and was a step in the right direction, but it's not enough.
An Egalitocracy
DHLP accepts contributions from almost anyone, however, the inclusion of contributions is a decision based entirely on the contributions' merit, purpose, and utility.
Contributors and decision-makers on DHLP projects are expected to operate with this imperative.
A utilitarian, egalitocratic paradigm in the context of a Linux distribution places emphasis on selecting contributions based on their utility, merit, and purpose, while consciously disregarding the identity of the contributor.
This approach diverges from traditional meritocratic systems, which, although valuing the merit and effectiveness of contributions, still acknowledges the contributor's identity as a secondary factor of the inclusion decision.
By solely focusing on the utility and merit of contributions, the utilitarian philosophy aims to create an environment free from personal biases, cronyism, and toxic politics, ultimately promoting a more equitable and inclusive software ecosystem. This paradigm shift within the open source community fosters the development of a robust, efficient, and fair Linux distribution that maximizes the overall benefit for all users and developers, transcending the limitations of conventional merit-based systems.
Inclusion
This allows for maximal inclusion.
Exceptions
The primary exceptions to this philosophy are those that abuse its intent. This is an exception provided by its utility.