As GNOME swaps executive directors faster than Linux users swap desktops, we ask what’s really happening behind the scenes.
Steven Deobald evidently didn’t have the magic needed to put the Gnome Foundation on the fast track to a return to stability. A little over a week ago, we learned that four months after accepting the job, Deobald has stepped down as Gnome’s executive director.
This is even shorter than Holly Million’s turn at bat. She stepped down as Gnome’s executive director after nine months, saying she was leaving to devote more time to her practice as a professional shaman (shawoman?) and to pursue a PhD in Psychology.
At the time it appeared that Million was being shown the door, likely because her fund raising efforts showed no promise of bearing fruit. When she was hired, the organization was spending more than it was taking in, and was living off a cash surplus it accumulated in previous decades. That was about to run out, and her efforts to create income to reverse the negative cash flow were unimpressive at best.
Although nobody’s saying so, it appears that Deobald is also being shown the door, although the whys and wherefores of this aren’t evident.
“Steven and the board have come to the conclusion that Steven is not the right fit for the Executive Director role at this time,” wrote Gnome board member Allan Day — who will be Deobald’s interim replacement — in a blog officially announcing the departure. “We are therefore bidding Steven a fond farewell.”
This parting of ways doesn’t seem to be about money. Although the organizations financial problems are far from over, it appears that Deobald’s efforts to raise funds have worked to at least keep the wolves away from the door, and there seems to be a consensus that he’s leaving the foundation in better financial shape than it was in when he took the job.
“In the near future we’ll be pushing forward with the fundraising plans that Steven has set out, and are hopeful about being able to provide more financial support for the Gnome project as a result,” Day said in the blog.
Deobald: Mum but Positive
When FOSS Force reached out to Deobald, he indicated that the time wasn’t right for him to make a statement, other than what he’s already said in a farewell blog on Gnome’s website.
“We’re in ‘wait and see’ mode at the moment,” he said.
In his blog, he offered no reason as to why he “wan’t a good fit”:
“As the board announced earlier today, I will be stepping down from the Executive Director role this week,” he wrote. “It’s been an interesting four months.”
Mainly the blog was a long list of thank-yous, starting with something of a shout-out to the organization as a whole:
“In a few short months I’ve found it remarkable how hardworking the entire GNOME community is. You folks accomplish so much in such short spans of time, with limited resources. But even more surprising to me was just how warm and welcoming all the contributors are. A lot of folks have built a real home here: not just a professional network, but an international village. Language, cultural, and economic barriers are broken down to make GNOME such an inviting project and I’m honoured to have served GNOME as ED, even if only for a brief period.”
The only hint that Deobald is perhaps leaving the stage earlier than he would have liked is in the blog’s title, a play on “So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish,” the title of the Douglas Adams novel that DEobald’s predecessor, interium executive director Richard Littauer, gave his farewell blog four months earlier. Deobald’s farewell headline was “So Short, and Thanks for All the Flinch.”
Gnome on Deobald’s Tenure
If Gnome is burying a Caesar, it’s certainly praising him in the process.
Day had nothing but praise for Deobald’s brief go at holding the reins at Gnome, and offered up a bullet list of his predecessor’s accomplishments:
- Energetic engagement with the Gnome community, including weekly updates focused on the Foundation’s support of Gnome development, and attention to topics of importance to our contributors, such as Pride Month and Disability Pride.
- The creation of a new donations platform, which included both a new website, detailed evaluation of payment processors, and a strategy for distributing donations to Gnome development.
- A focus on partner outreach, including attending UN Open Source Week, adding postmarketOS to our Advisory Board, and the creation of a new Advisory Board Matrix channel, alongside many conversations with partner organizations.
- Internal policy and documentation work, particularly around spending and finances.
- The addition of new tooling to augment policies and documentation, such as an internal Foundation Handbook and vault.gnome.org
assistance with the board, including recruiting a new treasurer and vice-treasurer.
It’s too bad that the Linux Foundation is so dead set against anything that looks like desktop rather than server Linux, because the current state of the Gnome organization makes it appear to be ripe for some of LF’s excellent management mentoring. Maybe the Apache foundation will step up and offer its help.
Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux
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