2006 OpenBSD Hackathon Well Underway

An anonymous reader writes "KernelTrap is running a two part who's who at the 2006 OpenBSD Hackathon. Starting on the 27th and running for a full week, developers get together and concentrate on communication rather than just development. Project leader Theo de Raadt was quoted as saying 'I don't think anybody else does this, developers suspend their lives for a week to focus entirely on just development.'"

you're not alone doing this

[Anonymous Coward]

Theo de Raadt was quoted as saying 'I don't think anybody else does this, developers suspend their lives for a week to focus entirely on just development.'

For just one project that does this often, see http://plone.org/events/sprints [plone.org]

No one else does an -athon?

[192939495969798999]

So no one else suspends work to do something else intensely for a short time as a competition/etc. Let's make a short list: semi-pro (or even pro in some sports) athletes. touring artisans. olympians. the peace corps. So yes, lots of other people do something like a "hack"athon, for their chosen area of interest.

Re:No one else does an -athon?

[Toba82]

That's not the point - what he was saying is that no other free software project actually has a meetup where they code in a setting that is, frankly, what closed source companies use 100% of the time.

Re:Yeah.

[twistah]

Look up the word "volunteer" in the dictionary.

How is this useful?

[cperciva]

I've never been to an OpenBSD Hackathon, but I really don't understand how this is the best way to use their time together. Surely the advantage of getting everybody into a room together is to allow them to talk to each other more easily, not to allow them to all stare at their terminals and ignore each other.

When FreeBSD developer summits occur (e.g., at the recent BSDCan), there is always some important hacking done, but the most useful result of the devsummit is that people can talk to each other and make decisions about where the project should going next (e.g., dropping support for Alpha, working more on embedded/arm support, et cetera). Clearly we're missing something important -- can someone more familiar with OpenBSD tell me what the ingredient is in Theo's Magic Kool-Aid which makes developers better at hacking code when they all get together in a single room?

Re:heh

[Anonymous Coward]

I found it interesting that so many of the OpenBSD developers started off working with Linux (that some come from the other BSD's is hardly a surprise considering OpenBSD's origin). It seemed they were motivated as much by being disenchanted with Linux code quality (and documentation) as they were captivated by OpenBSD. It begs the question as to whether Linux really needs tighter integration and stricter controls on key libraries, utilities, etc. now that it has become a mainstream OS so far from its hobby beginnings. You could dismiss them all as malcontents, but I'm beginning to wonder (by numbers and lingering rumours) if there is something to these criticisms.

Re:What about DebConf?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah but OpenBSD hackathons usually produce things of great value. Others are just a communal handjob.

Re:Yeah.

[Nimrangul]

He said it because it's what open source developers are you dipshit, they volunteer their time to develop a free piece of software, the only one of them that is consistantly making a living through OpenBSD is de Raadt, and he lives and breaths OpenBSD. Perhaps you should be reading a different section of Slashdot, so as to not confuse you with these complex concepts.