Hi Alasdair, I think what you've done with OI is given us all using OpenSolaris a phenomenal lifeboat. I know it is much harder for me to evangelize OI than it ever was OpenSolaris because of the name. It's essentially an inside joke amongst us that used Indiana, everyone else thinks of the state or the movies and moves on. In that regard Illumian I think has a much better chance of getting traction. Also, the website needs a little better layout and a lot better maintenance. I'd be willing to volunteer for that job, but to be honest, without a name change I don't see much of a point because we need fresh blood using it.
My concerns about Illumian is the neglect the original Nexenta and then NCP experience. The kernels are rarely updated and the packages are ancient and sparse. I have little faith Illumian will not suffer the same fate since storage appliances (Nexentas business model) don't need either. This is where OI has been far superior and why we migrated our OS servers to OI. I think it's a little cheeky of Nexenta to piggy back off that work and go their own way. Since almost no one likes IPS (apt-get at least works well and is quick) and our community should be working together on a single distro instead of splitting our energies since we're very small, it seems to me a middle path should be the way forward. I think OIs strength lies in its packages and Nexenta's in the fact that it's devs contribute actively to the Illumos kernel. I would like to see a truce and Illumian developed as single path forward by both camps...one not controlled by Nexenta and which is governed by an open board...if Nexenta is serious about it. I'd be willing to contribute my energies and some of my company's to that effort. -J Sent via iPhone Is your email Premiere? On Nov 26, 2011, at 19:37, Alasdair Lumsden <[email protected]> wrote: > On 23 Nov 2011, at 19:32, Garrett D'Amore wrote: > >> I doubt that's terribly realistic, or even that useful. But yes, a more >> periodic and regular release schedule is definitely something we hope for. >> OI has had 3 releases in the 18 months or so since the project was announced >> … this is too infrequent for an active open source project. Especially one >> as young as ours. > > Unfortunately drumming up interested developers has proven exceedingly > difficult. Without commercial backing, very few people are willing to invest > the time and energy in making the distro. The last release stalled completely > and took a concerted effort by richlowe and myself to get it pushed out. > Neither Andrzej or Trisk were willing to provide any more of their time on it. > > Imagine Illumos with no Delphix, Nexenta or Joyent support. That's where > OpenIndiana is at. It sucks, but there we go. > > I am rather saddened that Nexenta and Joyent have shown so little in helping > OpenIndiana (although I appreciate there is no direct commercial reason for > doing so). But I'm even more saddened that the greater community have shown > little interest either. If OI were to die, it would be a big loss for all of > us. It gets over 5000 downloads a month and has done since launch, which is a > significant number. > > Perhaps this failure is my own; I have failed to drum up developer interest. > I have no prior background in managing an open source project, and I also > have a full time business to run, giving me insufficient time to devote. It > just isn't enough - and sadly nobody else has really shown any interest in > leading the project either. An early attempt to put in place an > administrative structure showed just how disinterested people were in helping > to manage it. > > Illumian on the other hand has the commercial backing of Nexenta, so I have > no doubt that this distribution will see a greater pace of development than > OI. It's unfortunate that things have come to this, and I hope you can > appreciate why I and other OI developers are unhappy (bitter) about it. In > some respects it is an indirect attempt at a coup d'état, whether intentional > or not. You could have chosen OI as your base, and helped strengthen our > community, but you have decided not to. > > When I started OI I wanted to unite the community around one solid community > distribution. I hoped that if everybody pulled together, we could really > build something special. But more importantly, I hoped we could stay relevant > in an increasingly linux-centric world. To send a united message to the world > that here is a solid distribution with serious backing. Instead, everybody > has gone off on their own direction, weakening everything. This is just > another example of yet more fragmentation. > > Illumos will continue to provide a solid kernel for Nexenta and Joyent's > products, but I am no longer hopeful about us competing with Linux. Not as > things stand. StormOS, Belenix, Schillix, have fractional numbers of users > compared to OI, and I have no doubt that Illumian will become another > marginal distribution too. If we'd all rallied around OI instead, we could > have collectively achieved a great deal more, and fought out a bigger place > for ourself on the operating systems stage. > > The last thing I want is for OI to haemorrhage users due to inactivity. You > think they'll switch to Illumian? No. They'll bugger off to Linux. That's > what a significant volume of users did after Oracle canned OpenSolaris. > > What you have done, all of you - anyone who stands to benefit from the > success of Illumos who has ignored OI, IMHO, have shot yourself in the foot. > > ------------------------------------------- > illumos-discuss > Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/182180/=now > RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/182180/21181056-a6eb2d37 > Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?&; > Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com ------------------------------------------- illumos-discuss Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/182180/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/182180/21175430-2e6923be Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21175430&id_secret=21175430-6a77cda4 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
