Eelco Dolstra, author of the Nix package manager, announced on the decision to resign from the post of head of the governing board of a non-profit organization NixOS Foundation, which provides support for the infrastructure that manages financial flows and resolves legal issues of the NixOS project. The decision was made after the publication of the collective open letter with criticism of Elko's actions and concerns for the future of Nix and NixOS. The letter was originally published by anonymous authors, but after it was posted, 160 people signed it.
The published open letter cites a leadership crisis in the project and the failure of current management to adequately respond to community concerns, which has resulted in these issues remaining unresolved for years. In particular, there is a failure of leadership to establish and uphold the values that the community should adhere to, as well as to hold members accountable for misbehavior. According to the authors of the open letter, a toxic culture has developed in the community and the management of the NixOS Foundation is inactive to eradicate it.
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It is argued that the emergence of such a toxic culture, which threatens the viability of the project, is a consequence of Elko Dolstra's pattern of behavior as a leader who undermines the authority of other participants, refuses to delegate authority to others, ignores community concerns and maintains conflicts of interest. The letter states that the project has reached a turning point, after which further inaction could lead to a loss of trust, the cessation of corporate support, the departure of some of the most active participants, as well as the disintegration of the most active core of the community and the collapse of the moderation team. The signatories of the letter expressed their readiness to support the fork of the project if Elko Dolstra does not resign.
Elko Dolstra is charged with putting pressure on the remaining members of the management board and the development team to reverse certain decisions. For example, after reaching consensus on the community's ability to veto NixCon sponsors, Elko Dolstra, being the only dissenter, initiated a re-examination of this issue. Examples of abuse of power to overrule decisions that should be made jointly include Dolstra's refusal to grant code review rights to long-time contributors and blocking an RFC-agreed change to the build system. It is also mentioned that due to the unregulated power, the moderation team feels powerless and fears that its authority may be undermined by the actions of Elko Dolstra.
After reviewing the open letter, the NixOS Foundation's governing board announced a meeting within 14 days to formulate a new project governance structure that would be community-driven and focused on meeting community needs. After the creation of the new governing body, members of the current governing council, which in addition to Elko includes three more members, will transfer their powers to the new structure. The process of transformation of management in the project will take place publicly and each participant will be able to control it.
The governing board's statement acknowledged that the project's management has not kept up with the changes and growth of the community. Despite the fact that the governing council was created mainly to resolve financial, legal and administrative issues, many perceived it as a community leadership body. In response, the council acted as a conflict arbiter, but was unprepared to deal with the emerging crises in the community caused by problems of communication, moderation, and decision-making authority. The new governance structure is expected to have full authority to address issues such as donor policies, conflicts of interest, moderation powers and minority protections.
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