GNOME head honcho Holly Million steps down
(2024/07/17)
- Reference: 1721208487
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/07/17/gnome_boss_steps_down/
- Source link:
The executive director of the GNOME Foundation has quit after less than a year in the role.
The GNOME Foundation, the non-profit organization behind the GNOME desktop environment, has [1]announced the departure of Holly Million, its executive director. We [2]covered her appointment as recently as nine months ago, in October last year.
As we said then, the role is not a technical one: it is more that of a spokesperson, the public face of the project, and as the person who raises sponsorship for the GNOME Foundation, which is a tax-exempt [3]US 501(c) organization .
[4]
At least early on, it looks like she was pretty good at this. Last November, the [5]GNOME Foundation reported that it received a million euros ($1,089,750) from the German [6]Sovereign Tech Fund , as the [7]Fund explains .
[8]
[9]
Despite this, Robert McQueen's April 26 [10]Update from the board said:
The GNOME Foundation has operated at a deficit (nonprofit speak for a loss - i.e. spending more than we've been raising each year) for over three years, essentially running the Foundation on reserves from some substantial donations received 4-5 years ago.
The next month, people were expressing concern at the level of spending, such as this [11]Analysis of GNOME Foundation's public economy: concerns and thoughts from postmarketOS developer [12]Pablo Correa Gomez :
With the numbers presented, the Foundation had lost approximately $650,000 in the 2021 exercise, and $300,000 in the 2022 exercise. And nobody seemed worry about it.
The following week, GNOME developer [13]Tobias Bernard reported on This Week In GNOME:
We're currently facing a major issue from the GNOME Foundation side. We hope it will be resolved before it impacts the coordination of the STF project, but if not, the future of parts of the project is uncertain.
This was later followed by a much more upbeat [14]update on the GNOME Development Initiative , which also pointed to the project's [15]Five Year Plan . (The Reg FOSS desk is just about old enough that this sobriquet evokes [16]unpleasant Stalinist associations , but then, this vulture is one of those [17]graybeards of the FOSS world .) More recent TWIG updates are [18]much more reassuring .
Although we do understand that the GNOME Foundation is a separate and independent entity and not under the control of Red Hat, as it should be – GNOME is used by lots of non-Red Hat projects – even so, GNOME is the default and only supported desktop environment of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. As Register sister site The Next Platform [19]reported at the start of the year , both IBM and Red Hat are doing quite well. It does seem to us as if the company could afford to spend a bit more to support a key part of its commercial offering.
[20]PowerToys bring fun tweaks to Windows 10 and 11
[21]SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 to receive support right up to end of Unix epoch
[22]Miracle-WM tiling window manager for Mir hits 0.2.0
[23]Fresh version of Windows user-friendly Zorin OS arrives to tempt the Linux-wary
As for Million, she is going back to university. In the Foundation's statement, she says: "I will be pursuing a PhD in Psychology and dedicating myself to my own private practice."
For now, she is working with interim executive director [24]Richard Littauer , whose day-job is at [25]Maintainer.io and who also works with the [26]SustainOSS community and with [27]CURIOSS , a community of Open Source Program Offices ( [28]OSPOs ) in universities and research institutions. ®
Get our [29]Tech Resources
[1] https://foundation.gnome.org/2024/07/12/gnome-foundation-announces-transition-of-executive-director/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/24/holly_million_gnome/
[3] https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/exempt-organization-types
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZpeWObTqwGWlz2Salg6zZgAAAMM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://foundation.gnome.org/2023/11/09/gnome-recognized-as-public-interest-infrastructure/
[6] https://www.sovereigntechfund.de/
[7] https://www.sovereigntechfund.de/tech/gnome
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZpeWObTqwGWlz2Salg6zZgAAAMM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZpeWObTqwGWlz2Salg6zZgAAAMM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://ramcq.net/2024/04/26/update-from-the-gnome-board/
[11] https://blogs.gnome.org/pabloyoyoista/2024/05/19/analysis-of-gnome-foundation-public-economic-concerns-and-thoughts/
[12] https://gitlab.gnome.org/pabloyoyoista
[13] https://thisweek.gnome.org/posts/2024/05/twig-149/
[14] https://foundation.gnome.org/2024/05/31/gnome-development-initiative-update/
[15] https://foundation.gnome.org/strategicplan/
[16] https://www.historyhit.com/first-five-year-plan-begins/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/15/opinion_open_source_attract_devs/
[18] https://thisweek.gnome.org/posts/2024/07/twig-156/
[19] https://www.nextplatform.com/2024/01/25/big-blue-bucks-the-datacenter-server-recession/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/12/latest_powertoys_bring_run_fun/
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/26/sle_opensuse_15_6/
[22] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/23/miracle_wm_020/
[23] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/15/zorin_os_17_1/
[24] https://www.burntfen.com/
[25] https://maintainer.io/
[26] https://sustainoss.org/about/
[27] https://curioss.org/about/
[28] https://fossa.com/resource-library/what-is-an-ospo
[29] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The GNOME Foundation, the non-profit organization behind the GNOME desktop environment, has [1]announced the departure of Holly Million, its executive director. We [2]covered her appointment as recently as nine months ago, in October last year.
As we said then, the role is not a technical one: it is more that of a spokesperson, the public face of the project, and as the person who raises sponsorship for the GNOME Foundation, which is a tax-exempt [3]US 501(c) organization .
[4]
At least early on, it looks like she was pretty good at this. Last November, the [5]GNOME Foundation reported that it received a million euros ($1,089,750) from the German [6]Sovereign Tech Fund , as the [7]Fund explains .
[8]
[9]
Despite this, Robert McQueen's April 26 [10]Update from the board said:
The GNOME Foundation has operated at a deficit (nonprofit speak for a loss - i.e. spending more than we've been raising each year) for over three years, essentially running the Foundation on reserves from some substantial donations received 4-5 years ago.
The next month, people were expressing concern at the level of spending, such as this [11]Analysis of GNOME Foundation's public economy: concerns and thoughts from postmarketOS developer [12]Pablo Correa Gomez :
With the numbers presented, the Foundation had lost approximately $650,000 in the 2021 exercise, and $300,000 in the 2022 exercise. And nobody seemed worry about it.
The following week, GNOME developer [13]Tobias Bernard reported on This Week In GNOME:
We're currently facing a major issue from the GNOME Foundation side. We hope it will be resolved before it impacts the coordination of the STF project, but if not, the future of parts of the project is uncertain.
This was later followed by a much more upbeat [14]update on the GNOME Development Initiative , which also pointed to the project's [15]Five Year Plan . (The Reg FOSS desk is just about old enough that this sobriquet evokes [16]unpleasant Stalinist associations , but then, this vulture is one of those [17]graybeards of the FOSS world .) More recent TWIG updates are [18]much more reassuring .
Although we do understand that the GNOME Foundation is a separate and independent entity and not under the control of Red Hat, as it should be – GNOME is used by lots of non-Red Hat projects – even so, GNOME is the default and only supported desktop environment of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. As Register sister site The Next Platform [19]reported at the start of the year , both IBM and Red Hat are doing quite well. It does seem to us as if the company could afford to spend a bit more to support a key part of its commercial offering.
[20]PowerToys bring fun tweaks to Windows 10 and 11
[21]SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 to receive support right up to end of Unix epoch
[22]Miracle-WM tiling window manager for Mir hits 0.2.0
[23]Fresh version of Windows user-friendly Zorin OS arrives to tempt the Linux-wary
As for Million, she is going back to university. In the Foundation's statement, she says: "I will be pursuing a PhD in Psychology and dedicating myself to my own private practice."
For now, she is working with interim executive director [24]Richard Littauer , whose day-job is at [25]Maintainer.io and who also works with the [26]SustainOSS community and with [27]CURIOSS , a community of Open Source Program Offices ( [28]OSPOs ) in universities and research institutions. ®
Get our [29]Tech Resources
[1] https://foundation.gnome.org/2024/07/12/gnome-foundation-announces-transition-of-executive-director/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/24/holly_million_gnome/
[3] https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/exempt-organization-types
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZpeWObTqwGWlz2Salg6zZgAAAMM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://foundation.gnome.org/2023/11/09/gnome-recognized-as-public-interest-infrastructure/
[6] https://www.sovereigntechfund.de/
[7] https://www.sovereigntechfund.de/tech/gnome
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZpeWObTqwGWlz2Salg6zZgAAAMM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZpeWObTqwGWlz2Salg6zZgAAAMM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://ramcq.net/2024/04/26/update-from-the-gnome-board/
[11] https://blogs.gnome.org/pabloyoyoista/2024/05/19/analysis-of-gnome-foundation-public-economic-concerns-and-thoughts/
[12] https://gitlab.gnome.org/pabloyoyoista
[13] https://thisweek.gnome.org/posts/2024/05/twig-149/
[14] https://foundation.gnome.org/2024/05/31/gnome-development-initiative-update/
[15] https://foundation.gnome.org/strategicplan/
[16] https://www.historyhit.com/first-five-year-plan-begins/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/15/opinion_open_source_attract_devs/
[18] https://thisweek.gnome.org/posts/2024/07/twig-156/
[19] https://www.nextplatform.com/2024/01/25/big-blue-bucks-the-datacenter-server-recession/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/12/latest_powertoys_bring_run_fun/
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/26/sle_opensuse_15_6/
[22] https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/23/miracle_wm_020/
[23] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/15/zorin_os_17_1/
[24] https://www.burntfen.com/
[25] https://maintainer.io/
[26] https://sustainoss.org/about/
[27] https://curioss.org/about/
[28] https://fossa.com/resource-library/what-is-an-ospo
[29] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/