[RFC] Detailing a service transition plan for glibc to CTI for August 2026.

[Zoë Kooyman]

On 6/24/26 01:12, Carlos O'Donell wrote:
> Developers,
>
> We're sketching out a a detailed service transition plan for glibc to 
> move to CTI
> services provided by LF IT.
>
> The initial sketch is up here:
> https://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/service-transition-plan
>
>
August is coming up soon, and given the push of yet another draft
proposal to move some glibc services, we are compelled to
respond to the discussions around the hosting of glibc once
again to get critical about the current proposal:
https://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/service-transition-plan.

The FSF continues to hear objections and questions, and though
the mailing list doesn't show much response, the discussions
reaching us make it seem like this is more about topic fatigue
than any community agreement. The FSF also still has unanswered
questions of its own.

The plan presented now still shows many TODO's and very limited
focus (Git and mailing lists). Part of the confusion and
frustration around this project is the lack of understanding we
have about goals. After years of work and discussion, a move of
some mailing lists and a git repository cannot possibly be a
satisfactory result for anyone? At this time it is unclear to me
even who is actively participating in the TAC, who supports this
project, or who has simply tuned out. The discussion really should be
about what the best way forward is, where "the TAC decided" is
not an argument.

The serious concerns around transparency on funding and lack of
clarity on what is gained in return continue to be problematic.
The website now states: "The Core Toolchain Infrastructure (CTI)
project is hosted and supported by the Open Source Security
Foundation (OpenSSF), the Linux Foundation (LF) and its members.
The primary sponsor is the OpenSSF. "  What is the longterm
plan? It is unclear what exactly "The Core Toolchain
Infrastructure (CTI) project" is. A good proposal would outline
clear goals, a budget, and identification of any sponsors who
are willing to make multi-year commitments to satisfy the major
increase in expenses that would come with this move to the
OpenSSF.

There are other ways to achieve improvements. The Sourceware team
has taken major steps towards  professionalization over the
years and made good faith efforts in cooperation and
coordination. They deserve serious consideration of their
proposals. It is also worth explicitly stating that the FSF's
fiscally sponsored project fund is underused. The funds have
grown substantially over the years and expenses have been
minimal. I am sure donors to this fund would appreciate to see
their money being spent towards improvements of the project's
hosting.

I appreciate the efforts of the current project leads of the
changeover, I believe the motivation has been to bring positive
effects for the infrastructure and the discussions have
jumpstarted a range of improvements to the project's hosting, as
well as necessary discussions, but the current proposal lacks
consideration and fundamental support documentation.

Regardless of what comes next, it has always been the case that
FSF and GNU want to place trust in the maintainers if the
community does too, but it is also our responsibility to make
sure that decisions are made responsibly. The FSF has officially
asked Sourceware (via its Project Leadership Committee) to make
sure we have fallbacks in place and to support those community
members who want to use the services they know and which have
shown guaranteed support for the FSF's mission.

The current situation is making us question whether the proposed
steps are indeed the right next  move for glibc. We're concerned
about the time and energy being spent on this proposal while
there are other genuine improvements we could achieve if we
would all put our heads together.


-Zoë

-- 
Zoë Kooyman // Executive Director
Free Software Foundation

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