Why a Generic Open Source Project Can't Also Be a Successful Civil Rights Project

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Why a Generic Open Source Project Can't Also Be a Successful Civil Rights Project

Chris McDonough<br>May 16, 2024

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If you don’t know about the silliness that has overtaken the Nix project in the last few months, you’ll probably want to read my prior blog post to get a bit of background, because this post will make reference to it.<br>Summary

A general purpose open source software project can’t be an effective vehicle to also promote a civil rights goal.<br>Projects that produce software that specifically address a civil rights goal can obviously do both: the former does the latter. But there is excessive room for corruption if the project has as dual primary goals both the promotion of a civil right and the production of an unrelated set of general purpose software.<br>My Motivation

A combination of embarrassment, irritation, and a little bit of heartbreak sees me creating this.<br>Recently I created a blog post reporting on my unhappy involvement in a set of "governance discussions" hosted by the Nix Foundation board.<br>Before I participated in these discussions, I was waist-deep in a running Nix-related disagreement with my business partner. We co-own a consultancy, and my business partner claimed that the Nix community was immature and that, as a result, that we shouldn't heavily rely on Nix in our consulting engagements. I disagreed strongly with him, telling him incredulously “it has been around for over 20 years!” To me, the community seemed vibrant, healthy, and mature despite having some growing pains.<br>I went to bat for Nix in a major way in our related "talks", which mostly consisted of me yelling at him and being smug. I knew he was wrong. I had sunk a vast amount of time into Nix and I enjoyed learning it, using it, and presenting it very much. He just didn't get it.<br>So, when I saw the controversial "Save Nix Together" open letter, I knew I'd have to do some crisis management. The drama it caused would be super-public and I knew it would reduce my business partner's already-low trust of Nix to zero. But I was sure it was just a speed bump. I was sure that it didn't actually represent the state of the community.<br>I got the opportunity to confirm my beliefs when I was accepted as a participant in the subsequent Nix community governance discussions.<br>Now that I’ve taken part in those discussions, and having had a really poor time of it, I can tell you that he was right, and I was wrong.<br>I changed my mind not because the “Save Nix Together” open letter was right about everything, or even most things, or even many things, but because the letter was absolutely slam-dunk correct about a single aspect: existing Nix leadership is nonexistent.<br>The letter itself further contributed to the problem, but it can't shoulder any appreciable blame. A complete leadership vacuum predates it of which I was completely unaware, or at least to which I willfully blinded myself. The problem seems to have been around for a quite a while.<br>It turns out that the Nix community is alarmingly immature, and it's badly in need of a guiding hand. It'll surely get one, because the technology is insanely valuable and useful.<br>Unfortunately, if my participation in the discussions was good for anything, it led me to believe that the most powerful contingent currently offering such a hand is untrustworthy and doesn't share my interests. It also led me to believe that this hand will be accepted. We’ll see.<br>In my opinion, it was far too easy for unethical people without a significant history of contributions to become the heirs apparent for this technology. To do so, they wrapped themselves in the mantle of defenders of marginalized groups and noble warriors against the excesses of capitalism. They used the obvious power vacuum and the credulity and good will of a larger group of disinterested software developers to stepwise gain power. This power may yet allow them to turn Nix from a growing, professional project into a small social club (the discussions are still ongoing).<br>I know there are principled arguments for such an outcome. But I hope you don’t agree with the means, because they’re devoid of principle.<br>The Tradeoff

I hope that you read the report blog post if you yet haven’t because I describe their dynamics better there, but the governance discussions I took part in had as their stated goal the democratization of rules related to Nix collaboration.<br>The outcome of these discussions will define the governance of the communications between community members and it may define the future dynamics of the financial relationships between Nix and the larger world. It'll have an outsized impact on the continued operation of the various pieces of Nix infrastructure like AWS that support its growth. Due to the leadership vacuum, this is not just a fire drill, or a fun activity for the kids, it has actual stakes.<br>Within the report blog...