[indiana-discuss] Indiana Problem Statement

[Doug Scott]

Comments about the picking's are also inline.

John Sonnenschein wrote:
> Here's my picking at nits, comments inline -->
>
> On 6/11/07, Glynn Foster <Glynn.Foster at sun.com> wrote:
>
>> Indiana Requirements Document v0.5
>
>>    The distribution will showcase much of the work continuing in the
>>    OpenSolaris community and the best of breed open source software
>>    available within other open source communities. Moverover, the
>>    distribution will include work that closes the familiarity gap with
>>    existing GNU/Linux users eg. install and packaging.
>
> Are you implying we should abandon the Solaris userspace in favour of
> GNU tools, because I'm not okay with that. I very much dislike 90% of
> the GNU tools
>

Maybe should use the same rules as pkgbase. If no clash, then 
prefix=/usr, if clash, then
prefix=/usr/gnu (sysconfigdir=/etc/gnu, localstatedir=/var/gnu). Though some
standard Solaris commands could be modified for friendliness, if their is no
usability/compatibility issues.

>>    2.1) Adoption Barriers
>>
>>    Solaris is a world class operating system with many innovative
>>    features. However, in a few areas the user experience has
>>    been sub-optimal, causing a potential adoption barrier. Those
>>    areas in particular include ease of management, ease of install
>>    of the core operating system, the management of additional
>>    software and configuration and the availability of hardware
>>    support. Added to this is the frustration caused by the outdated
>>    nature of existing software, and the poor availability of
>>    certain development tools.
>
> One man's "outdated" is another man's "stable". If there's a problem
> with outdated software at all, it's that certain consolidations don't
> backport bug fixes to older versions, choosing instead to force their
> users to "upgrade" to the latest when it's out.
For real stable, use Solaris.

>
> Also, which development tools? gcc, gmake, the whole bit are included
> in nevada...
SFW is a very small subset of generally outdated tools. It does not even 
have
the required tools(/versions) to build JDS or Xorg.
 
>>    2.3) Source or Distribution
>>
>>    Despite the success of the OpenSolaris community over the last 2
>>    years, and the phenomenal growth it has seen, confusion has also
>>    grown over the expectations of whether OpenSolaris is a source
>>    base or a binary distribution. Many newcomers to the community
>>    assume there is an official OpenSolaris distribution to
>>    download and install.
>
> There is no official "Linux" either, but that hasn't been a
> significant barrier to their adoption. OpenSolaris is a source base
> and should remain that way, ambiguities about that should be dealt
> with by education, not by redefining what OpenSolaris is.

I don't see a problem having a distribution called OpenSolaris. If it 
helps more people adopt OpenSolaris then good!

>>         INS-4: A LiveCD should be available for a 'try first,
>>                install later' experience. The LiveCD functionality
>>                should be integrated into the core install CD.
>
> Does it need to be the same CD a la Ubuntu? or can it be split among
> two ( livecd and installCD ), because a functional copy of all the
> useful software takes up space that could be better served by
> including choices on the CD IMO. there can be a fully functional
> version of staroffice, or we could ship packages like KDE /and/ GNOME
> to give users some choices...
If we can, it would be simpler to have just 1 cd, and download the rest 
of the bits you need/want.

>>         PKG-6: Packages will be upgraded as appropriate
>>                through an automatic update facility and
>>                notification to the user.
>
> Absolutely not. If my machine does anything without my explicitly
> telling it to, it's a bug at best and a security violation at worst.
> -1x10^23
Should be user defined on install. Maybe the default should be automatic 
though.

>>    3.3) Familiarization
>>
>>         FAM-1: Provide a set of packages in the default install
>>                and network repositories that users would typically
>>                expect to see with a similar UNIX operating system
>>                eg. GNU/Linux.
>
> caveat: only if there's choice in the matter. Prompt on install if
> /usr/gnu will be added to the front of $PATH so that I and other
> comfortable Solaris users can say "no". for that matter, prompt if
> /usr/gnu should be installed as well, so I can again choose "no"
Again, should be user defined on installation.

>>         LAP-3: The system should automatically connect to an available
>>                network, whether through a network cable or wireless
>>                connection.
>
> No automatic, see my gripe with it before.
User defined on install. Default (automatic)

> Fixed:
> LAP-3: The system should prompt the user whether to automatically
> connect to an available
>               network, whether through a network cable or wireless 
> connection.
>
>
>>    3.5) Derivative Distributions
>>
>>         DST-1: Indiana should be created out of solely re-distributable,
>>                modular binary components that are open source. Indiana
>>                should value a strong commitment to freedom - the 
>> freedom to
>>                download, run, copy, share, change and improve.
>
> Sure, but that's part of the emancipation project. Given the choice
> between GNU sed(1) and the closed source sed(1) in closed_bins, I'd
> rather have the closed source but non-GNU copy
Do we have any takers to rewrite an "Open Source" Solaris compatible 
version?

Doug