dear Init-Freedom lovers,

Once again the Veteran Unix Admin collective salute you and thank you
for all your encouragement, participation and criticism.

Two weeks have passed after our initiative and several media outlets
have talked about it and have hosted discussion forums. We have updated
the website with all the last responses.

So far, one thing makes us happy: the Debianfork initiative has been
able to give voice to serious criticism for the systemd imposition on
users, still avoiding aggressive behavior and personal attacks.

However, the current situation doesn't looks good.

The vote on the Init GR has started and will conclude on 19th November,
here the graph of its progress:
https://vote.debian.org/~secretary/gr_initcoupling/

Forecasts by the Debian veterans among us, tell that the init-freedom
resolution will not pass: it seems that Debian is capitulating under the
systemd avalanche and its aggressive lobbying.

We believe that to negate user freedom of choice over Debian's init
system is a violation of its mandate and its very constitution.

We confirm our determination in preserving Debian as an operating system
that honors the freedom of its users and, if a fork will be necessary,
we will facilitate the creation of a developer team and gather all the
resources necessary for it.

The Dyne.org non-profit foundation confirms its support for our
iniative, plus we have received many more offers for support so far, and
we are conscious that some Debian sponsors are also evaluating the
future possibility of supporting our project instead.

Yet again, there is still hope to maintain the integrity of Debian's
community without forking it: it is again Ian Jackson on the first line
to bring things back to reason with this proposal
https://lists.debian.org/debian-ctte/2014/11/msg00030.html

This resolution will have a quicker vote and, according to the CTTE's
powers, will ensure that users upgrading to the next Debian release will
not have the init system substituted by systemd. Again, you are all
invited to help as much as you can to make this decision through: talk
about it to people able to vote in Debian and propose good and polite
arguments on forums and in public.

To stay in touch among ourselves, someone has registered a channel
#debianfork on Freenode IRC. There are already some people busy
evaluating the situation, sharing news and links to press and monitoring
the public discussion on the Debian forum.

Best wishes, stay strong and lets keep good faith in our cause.

--
in solidarity
Veteran Unix Admins
http://Debianfork.org

Press roundup so far:

Internet forums

http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/10/20/1944226/debians-systemd-adoption-inspires-threat-of-fork

http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/10/28/0026200/debate-over-systemd-exposes-the-two-factions-tugging-at-modern-day-linux

http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/10/30/229221/ask-slashdot-can-you-say-something-nice-about-systemd

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8477659

http://www.reddit.com/r/debian/comments/2jola4/shall_we_fork_debian_via_hackernews/

English

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/21/unix_greybeards_threaten_debian_fork_over_systemd_plan/?mt=1413883830033

http://www.i-programmer.info/news/126-os/7882-debian-and-the-systemd-storm-ready-to-reconsider.html

http://linuxfr.org/users/almin/journaux/un-fork-de-debian-a-cause-de-systemd

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Fork-Debian-Project-Started-to-Put-Pressure-on-Debian-Community-and-Systemd-Adoption-462598.shtml

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTgxNzg

http://www.itworld.com/article/2835983/should-debian-be-forked-because-of-systemd.html

http://www.networkworld.com/article/2837792/opensource-subnet/debian-community-splits-over-systemd-but-fork-still-unlikely.html

http://adtmag.com/articles/2014/10/21/debian-fork.aspx

http://www.itwire.com/business-it-news/open-source/65781-pushback-against-systemd-in-debian-gathers-steam

Italiano

http://www.lffl.org/2014/10/l-idea-di-creare-un-fork-di-debian-a-causa-di-systemd.html

Deutsch

http://www.golem.de/news/systemd-diskussion-debian-koennte-geforkt-werden-1410-109945.html

http://www.pro-linux.de/news/1/21636/debian-abspaltung-in-aussicht-gestellt.html

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Debian-Forker-wollen-erstmal-nuechtern-diskutieren-2428623.html

http://www.newswalk.info/debianveteranen-wollen-linuxdistribution-abspalten-428681.html

http://www.computerbase.de/2014-10/erneute-diskussion-um-systemd-bei-debian/

Français

http://linuxfr.org/users/almin/journaux/un-fork-de-debian-a-cause-de-systemd

http://www.developpez.com/actu/76513/Debian-sera-t-il-forke-a-cause-de-systemd-Un-groupe-de-contributeurs-menace-de-le-faire-si-le-programme-est-active-par-defaut-dans-Jessie/

http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/systemd-sur-debian-la-guerre-de-clochers-tourne-aux-menaces-39808179.htm

Español

http://www.linuxadictos.com/proponen-un-fork-de-debian.html

http://www.muylinux.com/2014/10/21/debian-systemd-problemas

ру́сский

http://www.nixp.ru/news/12870.html