Foundation:Gentoo History

The Birth of Gentoo
Once upon a time ...

Nope ... we have some dates, so I'll use them whenever I can.

It wasn't quite like the birth of the Universe, first there was nothing, then there was Gentoo. Daniel Robbins had been working on an earlier project and this became Gentoo. Gentoo was offcially founded on 4th October 1999. Thats the date that gentoo.org was registeded and its the best we have to go on. Daniel Robbins, Gentoos founder and chief architect or benelovelnt dictator for life (BDLF) was unable to provide a better date when the subject of Gentoos birthday was researched for the 10th birthday which fell in 2009.

The drobbins Years 1999 - 2004
Between the founding of Gentoo and Daniel retiring in 2004 all of gentoos copyrights and other intellectual property belonged indirectly to Daniel. Developers assigned copyright to Gentoo Technologies Inc. and Gentoo Technologies Inc. effectively belonged to Daniel. The Gentoo shop on cafepress also belonged to Gentoo Technologies Inc.

The structure of Gentoo at that time was much more like a normal corporation. Everything was under the control of Gentoo Technologies Inc. and Daniel was the 'Technical Director' of Gentoo too.

Top level project leads were appointed rather than voted for - there was much less democracy, which may have been a good thing for the pace of development. Gentoo was smaller then and easier for one person to manage.

Daniel ran Gentoo with the help of the Top Level Project leads until he retired from Gentoo in 2004. Until that time, Gentoos assets were held by Gentoo Technologies Inc. which was owned an operated by Daniel as a For Profit organistaion.

Gentoo Technologies Inc. did not make a great deal of money and Daniel was forced to curtail the time he spent on Gentoo. The led to his retirement in 2004. As a part of Daniels retirement, the not for profit Gentoo Foundation Inc. was formed.

The Top Level Project leads continued to be responsible for the technical direction of Gentoo, although for one reason or another, this became less effective with the passing of time.

The Transistion to The Gentoo Foundation Inc. 2004
As a part of Daniels retirement, the not for profit Gentoo Foundation Inc. was formed to inherit all of the assetts of Gentoo Technologies Inc. Its purpose was to to be able to legally represent Gentoo as well as to be accountable for Gentoos assets.

The Early Foundation Years 2004-2007
From its birth, in May 2004, the Foundation was fairly invisible to developers ... until in 2007 some papers went astray in the post, the annual returns did not reach New Mexico authorities and the Gentoo Foundaion Inc. fell into bad standing. That lead to a lot of noise on the gentoo-nfp maining list and elections for new trustees were held in early 2008.

Perhaps the Gentoo Foundation Inc. trustees missed a trick when the council was formed. Gentoo could have been organised as a standard corporation then but historically, Gentoo Technologies Inc. had been kept separate from the distro and the Gentoo Foundation was set up in the same manner.

The Rise of The Gentoo Council
The Top Level Project leads continued to be responsible for the technical direction of Gentoo, although for one reason or another, this became less effective with the passing of time.

When this was noticed a proposal (GLEP 39) to form an elected council was made and apporved by the developers, thus the council was born later and seperately from the Foundation. This point is important to the later history of Gentoo.

The Gentoo Foundation Inc. 2007-
Since the 2008 Trustee elections, the trustees have held regular monthly meetings in #gentoo-trustees. Members and non members are welcome to attend. Meetting logs have been published, motions captured and all in all, the Gentoo Foundation Inc has been more visible and transparepnt than in the early years. Thats not to suggest that the early trustees neglected the Foundation.

Since its formation the council has always been a visible body within Gentoo, they are required by their terms of reference (GLEP 39) to hold at least one public meeting per month. On the other hand, the trustees are the board responsible for a business. They are required by the laws of New Mexico to hold an Annual General Meeting open to all members. Its much easier for the Gentoo Foundation to be invisible.

The Gentoo Foundation Inc. is responsible to its members ... thats not the same body of people as the Gentoo council are responsible to. The coucil is responsible to and elected by Gentoo developers. Foundation members are members who have voted in at least one of the last two Trustee elections and people who have asked to join, showing how they have contributed to Gentoo. That means that not all developers are Foundation members and some Foundation members are not Gentoo developers.

The Future of Gentoo
As a result of the way Gentoo whas been organised in the past and the way the organisation has evolved over time, Gentoo has grown into a two headed monster. There is Gentoo (the distro) under the council, with no legal staus whatsoever and the Gentoo Foundation Inc. that owns everything and has the legal responsibility and accountability for Gentoo (the distro).

The current arrangement works because Gentoo is small and the informal communications structure allows it to work.

From the outside its looks very odd and may well cost us both donations and sponsorship. It needs to be addressed by reorganising Gentoo into a conventional corporate structure. That is another topic.

Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the following authors and editors for their contributions to this guide:


 * NeddySeagoon