[OpenIndiana-discuss] [oi-dev] Proposal: OpenIndiana Stable Branch

[Deano]

Guido wrote
> I agree with that, however I consider this strictly a makeshift
> solution for those who are now desperately in need for a
> replacement of OpenSolaris to bridge the time until the
> Illumos-based OI has stabilized.

How does illumos-based OI change the situation we currently have, that we
don't have the man power to manage the multitude of packages the OpenSolaris
had/has?
It's a classic boot strap issue, until enough package maintainers are
available to do critical/security updates on OI, regardless of the backend
ONNV or illumos, applications will atrophy. But if OI isn't production
ready, then nobody will come forward as package maintainers. IMHO this can
be seen in the state of OpenSolaris and OI package mess (dependency loops,
etc.)
Similar to how the wine/cross-over dev have to concentrate on the most
important windows apps to get running, OI stable should pick apps most
used/wanted that have active maintainers and interested parties. Nothing
wrong with having all the other apps in repositories for use in less stable
environments, but at least we are being honest about the status.

> > If external contributors were able and willing to commit patches/fixes
beyond the supported list, we'd accept them with open arms, and this could
be a great way to extend the contributor list and get more people involved.
>
> Note that this is not just be about accepting contributions,
> it would also involve review and testing by regular developers,
> in particular if we make committments about stability. I think
> there are better ways for potential contributors to get involed
> into the project so let's stick to the above list.
Not sure what you mean by regular developers? At the moment we have a few
maintainers each taking huge incorporations, that's a massive (and we are
all very grateful) commitment. Most I suspect can't take on such a large
chunk. However I suspect many of us could maintain a package or two
specially if we already using them in a production OI setting, as we already
have to do security watching and updates. However that means the smaller
sized chunk list will be largely driven by what actual users use rather than
a list of chosen packages.

I'm personally a good case in point, I'm happy to help OI out with a few
how-tos and packaging up the few apps I care about and use day to day, as a
thank you back to the massive and impressive work done getting OI where it
is now. But currently there doesn't seem to be a spot for me to really help
out... the apps I'd probably package and support are nginx and node.js. Not
on the top 10 list but they are what I use and so know and could maintain
(when I have to learnt IPS packaging).

> Since this is just a bridge for those who already use OpenSolaris
> or OI in production I'm categorically against demands for feature
> additions sucha as providing postfix and a pony that already seem
> to pop up.
> This is a temporary solution, so please let's treat it that way.
If this is temporary solution, what is the permanent solution? Illumos
solves the ONNV issue, but going forward how does OI as a distribution be
production ready as a server platform (its obviously first use) etc.? and
encourage user to pitch in?


Bye,
Deano