[OpenIndiana-discuss] "OpenIndiana lead Alasdair Lumsden resigns" - next steps

[David Halko]

See comments below, in-line.


> Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2012 11:29:48 +0200
> From: "Open Indiana" <openindiana at out-side.nl>
> To: "'Discussion list for OpenIndiana'"
>         <openindiana-discuss at openindiana.org>
> Subject: Re: [OpenIndiana-discuss] "OpenIndiana lead Alasdair Lumsden
>         resigns"
> Message-ID: <001a01cd88ed$7f8ebce0$7eac36a0$@nl>
> Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="us-ascii"
>
> I guess i sparked this discussion about the GUI. Not that I want a GUI, but
> if you read the comments on Alasdair Lumsden resign then most people that
> call OI "a stupid OS" are the people that only use a GUI to do things. ;-)
>
> But based on the number of reactions on this subject I fear that there a
> just a very few OI users. Or the rest must have been sleeping the last
> days.
>
>
> So I would suggest that we start some kind of voting/.. somewhere on the
> internet. Maybe in this mailgroup or on the OI website.
> I suggest the following questions:
> 1. Who wants to help develop OI?


I would be interested.


> 2. What skills do you (the voter) have that can help OI?
>

Documentation, Web Upkeep, How-To's, Scripting, Packaging


> 3. What kind of software do you want to have running on OI?
>

Nothing, Can't get OI to run on any hardware available to me.


> 4. What kind of hardware/drivers do you want to have running on OI?
>

V100, V120, V240, UltraSPARC 60, an Intel laptop.


> 5. Have you ever created a "HOWTO" for OI? If "YES" where is it?
>

As soon as I can find a load which works, I can start.


> 6. Have you ever found a useful "HOWTO" for OI? If "YES" where is it?
>

No.


> 7. Have you ever created a useful "software package" for OI? If "YES" where
> is it?
>

No. Only created large software systems under Solaris 10 for internal
facing user communities


> 8. Do you use OI in a commercial environment?
>

I would if OI would run under UltraSPARC systems. There is a market for OI,
if it keeps Solaris 10 software compatibility. Especially if OI will run
under an LDOM, since Oracle will not be moving Solaris 10 forward and
various ISV's are showing disinterest in supporting Solaris 11 due to the
high-barrier to entry (all new hardware of every kind in the Oracle product
suite.) OI just has to look like Solaris 10 and get new features to remain
relevant.


> 9. ....
>
> There must be more useful questions that I forget. But if we start to
> gather
> the above information we already have more (centralized) than we have right
> now.
>

How about:

9. Does OI need to concentrate on being a hypervisor? Run which operating
systems?

Yes, run Solaris 9, Solaris 10, Windows, Various Linux, maybe other SVR4
operating systems on other architectures.

10. What features would make OI compelling?

- Shared-nothing clustered ZFS fileyststem with Lustre or some other
clustering technology.
- Solaris 10 Compatibility, to woo ISV's who refuse to develop for Solaris
11.
- Development track which is disjoint from Solaris, concentrate on moving
SVR4 packaging forward, so previous development resources are not wasted on
fixing IPS bugs/incompatibilities, making possible future source code
releases (how ever unlikely that is) able to easily integrate, and making
it easier to integrate OI developments upstream.
- Leverage a simple, already existing, well defined management environment
like FMLI, so one group can create CUI management interfaces, and another
group of individuals can create port FMLI (XFMLI [again], WebFMLI, AJAX
like interfaces, etc.) so all short term work can be later leveraged.

Conclusions:

An OS is useless unless there is a market for it and it fulfills a market
need. Someone needs to decide what the market is, who the customers are
(i.e. user community), what other market elements it facilitates (i.e.
software vendors), who will pay for it (i.e. funding source), and what the
roadmap is to make it more relevant in the future to ever expanding groups
of consumers (i.e. any market that is not expanding is contracting - new
markets must always be courted and not denied.)

Thanks, David
http://svr4.blogspot.com/