Dear GNU Radio community,
at FOSDEM 2018, I was asked whether I'd be happy to take over maintainership of
the GNU
Radio project, something I've been very eager to do; by then, I had known the
community
for a little more than 8 years, and the project had grown to be an important
factor in
what I did on a day-to-day scale. It's been basically become family, anyways,
and I was
asked to play a decisive role in that.
That maintainership came with a role as an software, and what's more important,
ecosystem
architect. That's something I quite enjoyed, as it means that as long as
there's direction
and progress towards that, I got to shape what my favourite software project
looks like.
Pair that with the incredible amount of talent and resources that go into the
most
prolific SDR framework in the solar system, and you've got really quite a grand
thing
going on there! It's really been more akin to asking giants to move hills in a
way that
suits the scenery than wielding a hoe to shape one's own garden. And it's
really been a
fun, rewarding, and hopefully productive time:
In these three years, we've managed to finally move from the 3.7 era to a
modern 3.8 era,
by which we succeeded to get the GNU Radio cart out stasis, and we've even went
another
step and started the 3.9 era, where I hope modern tools and perspectives on
software
development allow GNU Radio to move at a high speed.
This might be a good time to give the authority to be the one to make calls
back to the
project. This means the General Assembly and the GNU Radio board will figure
out how to
find a successor for my former position. For the meantime, Derek Kozel and
Martin Braun
will take that power and use it for the best of the project for the near future.
I'll of course still be involved with GNU Radio (wouldn't know which other
project could
stand me...), but will be able to focus on concrete aspects, which might both
be on the
community side, as well as on technical projects. It's just that we're shifting
away from
me being a bottleneck to development!
I'm very grateful that Martin and Derek found the time to take over this
responsibility,
especially since I know they share my enthusiasm for the project, SDR and its
users.
Best regards,
Marcus