[Board] Travis-CI & OSGeo

[Howard Butler]

On 5/1/18 2:39 AM, Regina Obe wrote:
> I'm sure Hobu will correct my ignorance and rave about all the goodness of Travis :)
My point(s) about Travis are not about its technical non-superiority.
Ten years ago, Mateusz Loskot and I built and maintained an OSGeo
buildbot instance farm to do the same thing as you're proposing with
Jenkins. It's not about which approach is technically better. It's the
fact that buildbot required Mateusz and I to never burn out. We did.
Because we burned out, the projects could not depend on us or the
infrastructure we provided. It rotted and fell down.

Paying for Travis vs. building our own is about sustainability, not
technical prowess. *Travis never burns out* because we would be paying
for it. If it goes out of business, we can find another (Circle,
whatever) to pay for. Should OSGeo pay you so you never burn out (you
would anyway, suffering people's build farms is a thankless task)? Or
should it pay for specialists who only run build farms for many more
organizations and users than OSGeo's?

Projects that depend upon unstable infrastructure are unstable.
Infrastructure that is built, maintained, operated, and supported by
volunteer effort is more unstable than commercially supported
infrastructure when the volunteer pool is very small and sensitive to
heroes and burnout.

Howard

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