A leadership crisis in the Nix community
尼克斯社区的领导力危机

On April 21, a group of anonymous authors and non-anonymous signatories published a lengthy open letter to the Nix community and Nix founder Eelco Dolstra calling for his resignation from the project. They claimed ongoing problems with the project's leadership, primarily focusing on the way his actions have allegedly undermined people nominally empowered to perform various moderation and governance tasks. Since its release, the letter has gained more than 100 signatures.
4 月 21 日，一群匿名作者和非匿名签名者发表了一封致 Nix 社区和 Nix 创始人 Eelco Dolstra 的长篇公开信，呼吁他辞去该项目的职务。他们声称该项目的领导层一直存在问题，主要集中在他的行为据称破坏了名义上有权执行各种审核和治理任务的人的方式。自发布以来，这封信已经获得了100多个签名。

Decision-making authority
决策权

The Nix project is governed by the NixOS Foundation, a non-profit organization that handles the project's finances and legal responsibilities. The foundation itself is headed by a board with five voting members, chaired by Dolstra. There are no term limits, and the board selects its own membership and chair. According to the board's team page, its responsibilities include handling "administrative, legal, and financial tasks", sponsorships and donations, funding for "community events and efforts", and acting as an arbiter in case of conflicts in the community. Notably, the board "is not responsible for technical leadership, decisions, or direction", nor is it expected to handle all decision making. The board is responsible for providing "a framework for teams to self-organize", including a duty to "[h]and out the credentials and permissions required for the teams' work".
Nix 项目由 NixOS 基金会管理，该基金会是一个处理项目财务和法律责任的非营利组织。该基金会本身由一个由五名投票成员组成的董事会领导，由多尔斯特拉担任主席。没有任期限制，董事会选择自己的成员和主席。根据董事会的团队页面，其职责包括处理“行政、法律和财务任务”、赞助和捐赠、为“社区活动和努力”提供资金，以及在社区发生冲突时充当仲裁者。值得注意的是，董事会“不负责技术领导、决策或指导”，也不负责处理所有决策。董事会负责提供“团队自组织的框架”，包括“提供团队工作所需的证书和权限”的职责。

The open letter has several related complaints, but the most central one is that they allege Dolstra has repeatedly strong-armed the board and members of other community teams to overrule their decisions:
这封公开信有几个相关的抱怨，但最核心的抱怨是他们声称 Dolstra 一再强硬地武装董事会和其他社区团队成员来推翻他们的决定：

For example, after months of discussion on sponsorship policy in the board, with consensus having been formed on a policy that allows community veto of NixCon sponsors, Eelco (and Graham [Christensen], at the same time) appeared at the open board call over 45 minutes in, and began re-litigating the issue of whether we need to limit sponsorship to begin with, which had already been agreed upon by everyone but him.
例如，在董事会对赞助政策进行了数月的讨论后，在允许社区否决 NixCon 赞助商的政策上达成了共识，Eelco（和 Graham [Christensen]）在超过 45 分钟后出现在公开董事会电话会议上，并开始重新讨论我们是否需要从一开始就限制赞助的问题， 除了他之外，所有人都已经同意了。

Christensen is Dolstra's co-founder at Determinate Systems. The letter lists other examples, such as Dolstra blocking longtime contributors from becoming code reviewers or blocking a build-system change that had made it through the RFC process. The letter concludes that Dolstra is essentially leveraging social power from being the founder of the project to overrule decisions that are nominally supposed to be made collaboratively. In short, Dolstra is acting as "the effective Benevolent Dictator for Life (BDFL)" of the project, even though the NixOS Foundation's charter doesn't grant anyone that authority. The letter says this leads to "a culture of responsibility without authority" that erodes contributors' desire to continue working on the project. It specifically mentions the moderation team as an example of this, saying that its members are "in fear of their authority being undermined directly by Eelco or indirectly through the Foundation".
Christensen 是 Dolstra 在 Determinate Systems 的联合创始人。这封信还列举了其他例子，比如 Dolstra 阻止长期贡献者成为代码审查者，或者阻止通过 RFC 流程的构建系统更改。这封信的结论是，多尔斯特拉本质上是在利用作为该项目创始人的社会权力来推翻名义上应该合作做出的决定。简而言之，Dolstra 是该项目的“有效的终身仁慈独裁者 （BDFL）”，尽管 NixOS 基金会的章程没有授予任何人这种权力。这封信说，这导致了“一种没有权威的责任文化”，削弱了贡献者继续从事该项目的愿望。它特别提到了审核团队作为一个例子，称其成员“担心他们的权威被Eelco直接或间接通过基金会破坏”。

When asked to comment on the concerns raised in the letter, members of the NixOS moderation team responded:
当被问及对信中提出的担忧发表评论时，NixOS 审核团队的成员回答说：

Overall we think that the letter describes the situation of the moderation team fairly well. We have been operating in an emergency mode most of the time for over half a year now. Our team retention is at an all time low, and we are barely able to keep up with recruiting new members as old ones quit. Right now the moderation team is down to four people, including two who desire to leave as soon as a replacement is found, not counting another moderator who left last week.
总的来说，我们认为这封信很好地描述了审核团队的情况。半年多来，我们大部分时间都在紧急模式下运作。我们的团队保留率处于历史最低水平，随着老成员的退出，我们几乎无法跟上招募新成员的步伐。目前，审核团队只剩下四个人，其中两个人希望在找到替代者后立即离开，这还不包括上周离开的另一位版主。

To the extent that the moderation team feels disempowered, this is mostly because of heavy antagonism from some community members or risks of destabilizing the community, and not because of an actual lack of power. Most of that is a reflection of a deeper cultural conflict within the community and not directly related to the foundation board.
在某种程度上，审核团队感到被剥夺了权力，这主要是因为一些社区成员的强烈反对或破坏社区稳定的风险，而不是因为实际缺乏权力。其中大部分反映了社区内部更深层次的文化冲突，与基金会董事会没有直接关系。

Despite slightly disagreeing with the source of the issue, they went on to acknowledge that Dolstra had impeded several attempts to improve the situation, and said that they understood many community members' complaints. The team also called the situation itself "a deep structural and cultural issue involving many people".
尽管对问题的根源略有不同，但他们继续承认 Dolstra 阻碍了改善这种情况的几次尝试，并表示他们理解许多社区成员的投诉。该团队还称这种情况本身是“涉及许多人的深层结构和文化问题”。

Pierre Bourdon, a long-time contributor to Nix, posted on Mastodon about his experience working on NixOS, stating that while he disagrees with the tone and approach of the open letter, the factual statements about Dolstra's leadership match his own experience.
Nix 的长期撰稿人 Pierre Bourdon 在 Mastodon 上发布了他在 NixOS 上工作的经历，并表示虽然他不同意公开信的语气和方法，但关于 Dolstra 领导层的事实陈述与他自己的经历相符。

Conflicts of interest 利益冲突

The letter also alleges several conflicts of interest, primarily concerning Dolstra's employer, Determinate Systems. Anduril, a military contractor that uses NixOS, has repeatedly attempted to become a sponsor of NixCon, which did not go over well with the community, as reflected in the minutes of the board meeting on March 20. The letter says Dolstra pushed strongly for the inclusion of Anduril as a sponsor even after it became clear that many core contributors disagreed. Anduril was eventually dropped as a sponsor for both NixCon 2023 and NixCon 2024 after community pressure. [Thanks to Martin Weinelt for pointing out that Anduril did end up sponsoring NixCon 2024.]
这封信还指控了几起利益冲突，主要涉及Dolstra的雇主Determinate Systems。使用 NixOS 的军事承包商 Anduril 一再试图成为 NixCon 的赞助商，但正如 3 月 20 日的董事会会议纪要所反映的那样，这在社区中并不顺利。这封信说，多尔斯特拉强烈推动将安杜里尔列为赞助商，即使很明显许多核心贡献者不同意。在社区压力下，Anduril 最终被取消了 NixCon 2023 和 NixCon 2024 的赞助商资格。[感谢 Martin Weinelt 指出 Anduril 最终确实赞助了 NixCon 2024。

On April 10, Théophane Hufschmitt, the secretary of the board, shared an update on the board's new sponsorship policy. Hufschmitt expressed the board's apologies for the way the situation was handled, and promised that "we will prioritize transparency, inclusivity, and responsiveness in our decision-making processes."
4 月 10 日，董事会秘书 Théophane Hufschmitt 分享了董事会新赞助政策的最新情况。Hufschmitt 对董事会的处理方式表示歉意，并承诺“我们将在决策过程中优先考虑透明度、包容性和响应能力。

That same day, Samuel Dionne-Riel stated that Dolstra had refused to clarify whether he had a relationship with Anduril and asked Christensen, a co-founder of Determinate Systems: "Does DetSys have or had relationships with Anduril?" Christensen replied: "Did you know this category of question is pretty much impossible to answer because NDAs are a thing?"
同一天，塞缪尔·迪翁-瑞尔（Samuel Dionne-Riel）表示，多尔斯特拉拒绝澄清他是否与安杜里尔有关系，并问Determinate Systems的联合创始人克里斯滕森：“DetSys是否与安杜里尔有关系？克里斯滕森回答说：“你知道这类问题几乎不可能回答吗，因为保密协议是一回事？

This isn't the only time Dolstra has appeared to avoid disclosing potential conflicts of interest; the letter alleges that he kept his status as a founder of Determinate Systems secret for some months (a claim Dolstra later denied), and that this is especially worrying in light of some of the technical promises that Determinate Systems makes to customers. The company produces its own installer for Nix that the company promises will provide stable support for some Nix features. The letter states: "This is fine, however, it is questionably acceptable to do that while employing the lead developer of CppNix [the main Nix implementation] and saying nothing about how this will interact with the team's [decision-making] autonomy." The concerns are not entirely theoretical, either; the main Nix installer has been broken in various ways since version 2.18 in September 2023.
这并不是 Dolstra 唯一一次避免披露潜在的利益冲突;这封信声称，他将自己作为Determinate Systems创始人的身份保密了几个月（Dolstra后来否认了这一说法），鉴于Determinate Systems向客户做出的一些技术承诺，这尤其令人担忧。该公司为 Nix 生产了自己的安装程序，该公司承诺将为 Nix 的某些功能提供稳定的支持。这封信指出：“这很好，但是，在雇用 CppNix [主要的 Nix 实现] 的首席开发人员并且没有说明这将如何与团队的 [决策] 自主权互动时这样做是值得怀疑的。这些担忧也不完全是理论上的;自 2023 年 9 月的 2.18 版本以来，主要的 Nix 安装程序已以各种方式被破坏。

Call to action 号召性用语

The final section of the letter calls for Dolstra's resignation from the board, suggesting that he should also completely disengage from the project for at least six months, to give the rest of the board time to reform the project's governance.
这封信的最后一部分要求 Dolstra 从董事会辞职，建议他也应该完全脱离该项目至少六个月，以便让董事会的其他成员有时间改革项目的治理。

This document should be seen as the canary in the coal mine for what many people have been feeling for years and does not exhaustively cover absolutely all problems in the community, but we hope it is enough to justify action.
这份文件应该被视为煤矿中的金丝雀，因为许多人多年来一直有这种感觉，并没有详尽地涵盖社区中的所有问题，但我们希望它足以证明行动是合理的。

The letter ends by suggesting that if Dolstra doesn't resign, the signatories would switch to and support a fork of the project. I contacted several of the signatories to ask whether they'd be willing to provide additional commentary on why they believed a letter like this to be a necessary step. Haydon Welsh responded:
这封信最后建议，如果 Dolstra 不辞职，签署方将转而支持该项目的一个分支。我联系了几位签名者，询问他们是否愿意就为什么他们认为这样的信件是必要的步骤提供额外的评论。海顿·威尔士（Haydon Welsh）回应道：

I signed the letter because it was clear that every other team member was sick and tired of Eelco, and so I saw it only right if that's their only hope to regain enthusiasm for the project. No open-source project should die or be hard-forked because of one person, that destroys a lot of the purpose for being open-source.
我在这封信上签了名，因为很明显，其他所有团队成员都对 Eelco 感到厌倦和厌倦，所以我认为只有当这是他们重拾对项目的热情的唯一希望时，我才是正确的。任何开源项目都不应该因为一个人而死亡或被硬分叉，这会破坏开源的很多目的。

Kiara Grouwstra had stronger feelings on the matter:
Kiara Grouwstra 对此事有更强烈的感受：

While I want a full rotation of members on the NixOS board, as well as changes to its goal and structure so as to better incorporate the community including marginalized perspectives, my friend convinced me the polemic response would not sit well with the moderators, and shared with me the draft open letter about Eelco's role, which I opted to settle for as the lower-hanging fruit right now.
虽然我希望 NixOS 董事会的成员全面轮换，并改变其目标和结构，以便更好地融入社区，包括边缘化的观点，但我的朋友说服了我，争论性的回应不会让版主满意，并与我分享了关于 Eelco 角色的公开信草稿， 我现在选择将其作为唾手可得的果实。

On April 27, Xe Iaso wrote a blog post about xer perspective on the matter, stating that at this point a fork is both inevitable and doomed. Even if the actions called for in the letter do come about, the difficult situation is already having an impact on the Nix community. On April 21, Nixpkgs contributor Kamila Borowska resigned from the project. On April 25, Mario Rodas, who had contributed more than 250 packages, followed suit. In total, 24 maintainers have left.
4 月 27 日，Xe Iaso 写了一篇关于 xer 对此事的看法的博文，指出在这一点上，分叉既不可避免又注定要失败。即使信中呼吁的行动确实发生了，困难的局面已经对尼克斯社区产生了影响。4 月 21 日，Nixpkgs 贡献者 Kamila Borowska 从该项目辞职。4 月 25 日，贡献了 250 多个包裹的马里奥·罗达斯 （Mario Rodas） 也紧随其后。总共有 24 名维护者离开了。

Dolstra's response Dolstra的回应

On April 26, Dolstra posted a response to the letter. He states that the role of the board is to handle the financial and legal work, not to run the Nix community. He also claims that he has had "very little involvement in Nixpkgs and NixOS in recent years". Dolstra goes on to state: "I am just one member of the five-member Nix team and hold no more formal authority than the others in determining the direction of the team." While this is true, it does not directly refute the letter's claims that Dolstra exceeds the formal authority granted to him.
4 月 26 日，Dolstra 发布了对这封信的回应。他表示，董事会的职责是处理财务和法律工作，而不是管理 Nix 社区。他还声称，他“近年来很少参与 Nixpkgs 和 NixOS”。多尔斯特拉接着说：“我只是尼克斯五人团队中的一员，在决定球队的方向方面，我没有比其他人更正式的权力。虽然这是真的，但它并没有直接反驳这封信的说法，即多尔斯特拉超越了授予他的正式权力。

Dolstra also reiterated his position that NixCon should not refuse Anduril's sponsorship, stating: "It is my opinion that it is not for us, as open source software developers, to decide whose views are valid and whose are not, and to allow or disallow project or conference participation as a result." Dolstra does, however, explicitly refute the claim that his involvement in Determinate Systems was at all secret: "My role, participation, and focus on the good work being done at Determinate Systems have been public knowledge since the company's inception". He goes on to say that the claim that Determinate Systems seeks to have an outsized influence on the community is "patently false".
Dolstra 还重申了他的立场，即 NixCon 不应该拒绝 Anduril 的赞助，他说：“我认为，作为开源软件开发人员，我们不能决定谁的观点有效，谁的观点无效，并允许或不允许项目或会议参与。然而，Dolstra 确实明确驳斥了他参与 Determinate Systems 完全是秘密的说法：“自公司成立以来，我的角色、参与和对 Determinate Systems 所做的出色工作的关注一直是公开的”。他接着说，关于Determinate Systems试图对社区产生巨大影响的说法是“显然是错误的”。

He ends his response by inviting community members who feel unwelcome in the Nix community to work for Determinate Systems instead:
最后，他邀请那些在 Nix 社区中感到不受欢迎的社区成员为 Determinate Systems 工作：

I remain committed to creating a community where everyone feels seen, heard, and valued, and I will not let unfounded accusations detract from this important work. I encourage everyone reading this who feels that they have not been heard or feels displaced to join the Determinate Systems community as we continue working to make Nix as easy to use and as impactful as possible.
我仍然致力于创建一个让每个人都感到被看到、听到和重视的社区，我不会让毫无根据的指责减损这项重要工作。我鼓励所有读到这篇文章的人，如果觉得自己没有被听到或感到流离失所，请加入 Determinate Systems 社区，因为我们将继续努力使 Nix 尽可能易于使用和有影响力。

It is difficult to predict where the Nix community will go from here, and what the eventual fate of any forks will be. For now, Dolstra remains the chair of the board — a position he seems unlikely to give up under pressure from the letter's signatories.
很难预测 Nix 社区将何去何从，以及任何分叉的最终命运是什么。目前，多尔斯特拉仍然是董事会主席 - 在这封信的签署者的压力下，他似乎不太可能放弃这一职位。

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