[ogb-discuss] Re: Project Proposal - (what is/was Indiana)

[Eric Boutilier]

On Thu, 31 May 2007, Simon Phipps wrote:
> On May 31, 2007, at 13:36, James Carlson wrote:
>
>> I don't think anyone is saying that you can't create a distribution
>> yourself without bothering with any project, community, or governing
>> board.  You can.  Knock yourself out.
>
> But that's not what's happening. If a Sun-sponsored team went off outside the 
> scope of the community and created a distribution like the one being proposed 
> as "Indiana", all hell would break loose here.
>
>> What I understand Keith to be saying (and what I agree with here) is
>> that if you're going to do that in the name of OpenSolaris itself --
>> not just "PlocherX" but "OpenSolaris Reference Release" -- then that's
>> logically something that ought to be a deliberate decision of the
>> community, and not something that "just happens" or (worse) "happens
>> because some executive at Sun says so."
>
> Right. So the situation we have is:
>
> *  A number of members in several OpenSolaris discussion fora mooted the idea 
> of OpenSolaris producing a distribution. Irt's a pretty obvious idea and 
> people keep asking where to find that distribution, so many of us (me 
> included) felt it was a reasonable proposal.
> *  Some of those people actually started sketching out a plan in a forum.
> *  Meanwhile, Ian Murdock was hired by Sun and he felt this was an idea worth 
> investing in
> *  Ian got Sun's management bought in to the idea of a new investment in this 
> community
> *  One of those management was so excited he commented to the press during 
> JavaOne, creating fear among those who resent "management interference"
> *  Ian rapidly got staff allocated and came back to the community with news 
> that Sun would commit resources to a community distribution
> *  Glynn has started the process of co-ordinating the community decision by 
> creating an outline proposal and submitting it to both the OGB and the 
> Discuss list for discussion.
>
> We are now at the stage where (as John Plocher said) for some reason some 
> high-profile individuals are "throwing up logistical barriers to this effort 
> instead of facilitating them", something that has not seemed to happen to a 
> project proposal on OpenSolaris before.

I disagree, what's actually happening here, I think, (and as others have
pointed out) is turmoil over some troublesome questions:

Is the designation "The OpenSolaris Distro" claimable by a
project? And if yes, does the Indiana project get to claim it?

Eric

>
>> I'm not sure it's necessarily an unmitigated good thing to have a
>> single privileged reference release (what happens to distributions
>> that decide to innovate in a different direction?), but, as a
>> community member, I'd like to see something more concrete about what
>> the reference will contain before deciding whether to endorse it.
>
> I agree it may well be a mixed blessing but until we as a community get the 
> work started we just won't know. It is ridiculous to criticise the effort for 
> not being fully-formed, since one of the main fears expressed here has been 
> that of "Sun management" presenting a fait accomplis.
>
> Thus, as a community member, I'd like to see a team form and get started. I 
> would really like to see the OGB we elected facilitate rather than obstruct, 
> please.
>
> S.
>
>
>