[indiana-discuss] [advocacy-discuss] OpenSolaris Developer Preview 2 Available

[Dave Miner]

Peter Tribble wrote:
> On Feb 13, 2008 8:44 PM, Dave Miner <Dave.Miner at sun.com> wrote:
>> Sigh.  We have made no statements about compatibility with anything,
>> either past or future, in the preview releases.  It's an experiment.
>> The negativity some of you have towards experiments just amazes me
>> sometimes.
> 
> But what's the experiment? Is OpenSolaris an experiment?
> Is Indiana an experiment? Is the preview an experiment?
> 

The preview is absolutely an experiment.  Indiana itself is an 
experiment.  OpenSolaris?  Well, I don't know what to call it ;-)

Perhaps this will be more helpful: in terms of the release taxonomy[1] 
that the ARC uses, we'd say that the Indiana releases are snapshots of a 
development train that has a Minor Release binding.  For what it's 
worth, SXDE and SXCE are classified the same way.  That doesn't mean 
that every snapshot will necessarily qualify to be a Minor Release in 
terms of compatibility, though.  If anyone's expecting that every build 
that comes out won't break compatibility in some way, that's just not 
realistic.  Besides the unintentional cases that inevitably happen, 
it'll also happen as pieces come together in stages.  Obviously some 
find a few of the experiments in the Indiana train unsettling, but we 
think it's the best way to figure out where to go.

> It would help a lot if the aims of this project were clearly explained
> and enunciated, because I for one haven't a clue what they are, and
> the more I think about it and look at what has been announced and
> what's happening, the less clear it is to me what Indiana stands for.
> 

The opening statement on the project page[2] remains as good a summary 
as any in terms of the aims.  I think that's been quite stable since the 
beginning.

Dave

[1] http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/arc/policies/release-taxonomy/

[2] http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/indiana/