Anthony Towns

Anthony Towns (born 21 June 1978, Melbourne, Australia) is a computer programmer who was a long-time Debian release manager, "ftpmaster" team member and later the Debian Project Leader (from 17 April 2006 until 17 April 2007). He is also the secretary of Linux Australia and has been an active member of HUMBUG since the late 1990s in his home town of Brisbane, Queensland, where he has resided since 1990.

Debian

Anthony Towns joined the Debian Project in early 1998. He made significant contributions to the Debian bug tracking system [ [http://bugs.debian.org/ Debian bug tracking system ] ] as well as to the network initialization scripts (as he wrote ifupdown [ [http://packages.debian.org/ifupdown Debian - Package Search Results - ifupdown ] ] ).

He also got involved in the package archive infrastructure and the release process. In 2000, he became the Debian release manager, replacing Richard Braakman, and going on to release Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 "potato" in August the same year.

After James Troup implemented package "pools", a new way of organizing packages in the Debian archive, later the same year, Anthony Towns implemented "testing" [ [http://www.debian.org/devel/testing Debian “testing” distribution ] ] , a new method of propagating Debian packages from "unstable" to "frozen" (and then on to "stable").

Towns continued as the release manager through the release of Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 "woody" in 2002. He remained as the release manager until 2004, when his two previous aides Steve Langasek and Colin Watson officially replaced him. During this time, the release process faltered somewhat, as the preparation of Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 "sarge" was only completed in 2005.

In 2004, he decided [ [http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2004/04/msg01929.html Social Contract GR's Affect on sarge ] ] that the Debian Free Software Guidelines apply to documentation, firmware and other things in Debian, interpreting General Resolution 2004-003 [ [http://www.debian.org/vote/2004/vote_003 General Resolution: Editorial amendments to the social contract ] ] . This prompted various other actions, cf. Debian Free Software Guidelines#Non-software content.

Leadership

He ran for the position of DPL in 2005, but was defeated by Branden Robinson by a margin of 23 effective votes [ [http://www.debian.org/vote/2005/vote_001 Debian Project Leader Elections 2005 ] ] .

He ran again in 2006, and was elected as the new Debian Project Leader on 9 April 2006, beginning his term on 19 April 2006 [ [http://www.debian.org/vote/2006/vote_002 Debian Project Leader Elections 2006 ] ] . Towns was elected by the second-narrowest ever margincite web|url=http://debcentral.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=413|title=Bits from the DPL|author=Towns, Anthony|accessdate=2007-02-23] and was the first DPL ever to face a recall vote while in office.cite web|url=http://www.debian.org/vote/2006/vote_005|title=General Resolution: Recall the project leader|author=Barbier, Denis|accessdate=2007-02-23] Towns was also the first DPL ever whose support by Debian Developers was reaffirmed through a General Resolution. [ [http://www.debian.org/vote/2006/vote_006 General Resolution: Re-affirm support to the Debian Project Leader ] ] 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 representthe project in locations which could more easily be reached by the runner-up candidate, Steve McIntyre, than himself.

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 4 December 2006.cite web|url=http://www.dunc-tank.org/press.html|title=Announcement of Dunc-Tank.org|accessdate=2007-02-23] Towns's involvement with Dunc-Tank came under severe criticism, including hitherto-unseen calls to end his Debian project leadership 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 [ [http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS3128387759.html Disgruntled Debian developers delay Etch] ] . Debian "Etch" was not released in December 2006 as hoped; instead its release happened in April 2007. Nonetheless, Towns views the outcome of the Dunc Tank project as positive,cite web|url=http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php?id=189708751&rid=-219|title=Dunc-Tank: Success or failure?|author=Tay, Liz|accessdate=2007-02-23] , highlighting that Dunc-Tank opposition helped to improve quality of Debian Etch.

In 2007, after Bdale Garbee, Towns was the second DPL to not be re-elected into office while still being a candidate after his first term.

References

External links

* [http://azure.humbug.org.au/~aj/blog/ Towns' weblog]