FOSS and Interface Taxonomy levels

[Nicolas Williams]

On Wed, Mar 05, 2008 at 11:24:43AM -0800, Danek Duvall wrote:
> Right now, we have no effective way to deliver components for Solaris other
> than through "the foundation of our systems".  Solaris is delivered as a
> giant, monolithic blob, appropriately highlighted by its moniker, the WOS.
> 
> If we had a better delivery system, that would allow for a smaller "core"
> but still allowed users to easily install a larger amount of software, we
> could push the more volatile things off into this arena, and make them
> available perhaps only through explicit "user pulls", rather than Sun /
> distro "pushes", then this problem would be alleviated.

A Solaris + a la carte FOSS system could easily result in DLL hell too,
no?

Is there any easy solution?

Given the current ARC "bias" towards interface stability (which, correct
me if I'm wrong, is a business mandated bias) then the best approach is
to measure and budget for the cost of FOSS integration.  That's a
business issue.  Alternatives include changing the ARC bias.

All I see here are business issues.  For now I think FOSS integrators
should aim to make relevant interfaces stable (e.g., executable paths
and some but not all options), either by putting in the work to do so
(or promising to, effectively binding whoever takes over their duties,
if anyone does) or by noting the risk that multiple versions of such
FOSS will need to be shipped (also risking DLL hell).

[My experience with SQLite3.x is that though it will have taken
significantly more effort to "Do it Right" (tm) than I'd hoped, the
integration effort will not have been prohibitively expensive, not
nearly.  SQLite3.x comes with a great history of and commitment to
interface stability, but it also comes with some, er, weird attitudes
towards dynamic linking that betray lack of confidence in the
community's commitment to interface stability.  This has led to my
spending far more effort than I'd wanted on integrating into the SFW
consolidation.  Other FOSS will, no doubt, come with its own odd
surprises.]

Nico
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