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List:       opensolaris-discuss
Subject:    Re: [osol-discuss] So who is ready to be let down?
From:       ken mays <maybird1776 () yahoo ! com>
Date:       2010-07-04 11:46:57
Message-ID: 639308.93061.qm () web111303 ! mail ! gq1 ! yahoo ! com
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--- On Sat, 7/3/10, Giovanni Tirloni <gtirloni@sysdroid.com> wrote in responded to a \
quote below:

> > You also have the legacy distros to review and learn
> > from:
> > http://www.genunix.org/dist/
> 
> 
> Are you saying the goal from the beginning was to encourage
> people to split their efforts ? In open source you usually
> don't care too much about wasted efforts when you've got
> lots of people working on everything. That doesn't seem to
> be the case for OpenSolaris so actually concentrating
> efforts would make more sense.
> 
> There is an OpenSolaris distribution (Indiana) and people
> should be encouraged to dedicate their time to make it
> better. Why can't they ?
.... 

Some good points. I'm not a spokeperson for Oracle, so take my answers for the coin \
throws they are worth. Let me toss this one out there for you:

See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpj0t2ozPWY

1. Oracle has provided roadmaps and briefings on Sun products and migrations within \
Oracle's product umbrella. They have posted slides, publically, on their website. \
Also, a bunch of info is getting tossed into the OTN as well. Timeline specifics \
relating to 'Solaris Next Dev' is not publically documented enough to warrant a true \
datestamp by anyone due to the feature set of 'Solaris Next Dev' not being truely \
defined, speculated, and/or approved for submittal to the general audience.

2. Split efforts is a community function and option. Contributions come in many forms \
(which some engineers fail to understand) whether it is basic feedback, bug \
reporting, code submittals, code review, or just friendly advice. It is not always \
about producing and submitting code (some good, some bad). Good documentation and \
technical support is worth its weight in gold for many software projects. Even \
financial funding is sometimes overlooked. Depends on how you look at the subject on \
contributing (kinda understanding a janitor is just as valuable as the office manager \
theorem). As for OpenSolaris, remember that at an earlier time this was called \
Solaris Express - which was closed source. How did users/developers contribute \
'source code' back then? The forums help unify people and people are free to unify \
and work on projects together. That is an option that I'm not against or opposed to \
(seems silly if "I" did). Also, remember that OpenSolaris binary releases are always \
considered ALPHA/BETA engineering snapshots - not produced for data center \
"production-based" migrations or deployments. Solaris Express had a similar 'bail \
out' disclaimer in case finger pointing arose. 

As for splitting work, the final 'Solaris Next Dev' product may or may not consist of \
everything worked on. A lot of the work was engineering concepts for people would \
LIKE to see. This is the true 'whiteboard' and final roadmap we haven't seen yet \
within the general public yet. Same thing happened with during Solaris 2.5/6/7/8/9/10 \
versus Solaris Express/Next. Nothing has changed in how Solaris product releases were \
handled other than us peeking at source code and being more involved in engineering \
projects and conceptualization (or advisory boards).

3. Oracle Account or Business Relationship management. These people have the \
responsibility to make sure you (aka the company your work or own) are happy \
'somewhat' in your concerns with services or products provided by their company (aka \
Oracle). Make full use of them - if your company has support contracts in place.

What you received as a Live CD was part of a project to release a core binary distro \
(aka Indiana). Third-party developers took parts from the code available and worked \
on their own distro from the existing or  modified package set (IPS or otherwise). \
So, some people are 'rolling their own' which the comment is not meant for most sys \
admins and intermediate users. As for innovation, that can be what you do with what \
you got - not if the code is open or closed.

Many projects have rules of if the code doesn't fall in line with what they want then \
they can reject it. That is not Oracle specific. As for companies running off and \
making commercial competitive products, are we talking on the OS product level (like \
CentOS versus RHEL or Ubuntu versus Debian) or application/appliance? I haven't seen \
any journalistic documentation or periodicals on that subject yet (i.e. OSOL \
2009.06/DEV (Solaris Next Dev) versus competitor's OpenSolaris-based distro). At \
least not where I've witnessed a OpenSolaris-based competitor having a winning hand \
over Oracle/Sun in some review. Send me the link if its out there.

I pointed out the Paul Masson commercial when Orson Welles would quote and say "we \
will sell no wine before its time". I'd think this is what many 'engineering \
employees' are trying to tell the general public is the generic umbrella mandate and \
NDA scrutiny of Oracle - in relation to Solaris Next Dev. As for OpenSolaris updated \
binary distros, there was some commentary awhile ago that energies are focused on \
Solaris 10u9 (a bigger concern in the 'real' production world) as well as Solaris \
Next Dev in parallel. Also, the OTN portal. Once Solaris 10u9 is officially released \
(this is just my analytical coin toss - not Oracle's), then start pounding on doors - \
but not beforehand. Please, save your strength till then or see my earlier ALPHA/BETA \
OS resolution...

~ Ken Mays


      
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