> what to call Indiana. Do we move to a model where > Indiana is called > OpenSolaris, i.e., is a binary distribution > maintained by the > community, with multiple distributions in the mold of > Ubuntu/ > Kubuntu/Xubuntu/etc. and with binary compatibility > across distros? > Or does Indiana continue to be called Solaris Express > and is just one > distribution of many in the mold of Red > Hat/SUSE/Debian/etc. with source > level compatibility across distros? That seems to be > the big question.
What Ubuntu has done is great for the OpenSolaris community, because you can learn so much from them. They created a single great distro, had some growing pains where users wanted some more options, and then spun off user projects into other official distros - Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Edubuntu, etc. Here is the important point. This is so important. Note that these sub-distros are pretty much all the same except for the user interfaces and the default applications. So most people don't care about forking Ubuntu to change some low level functions. The big noise comes from people who care about how they use their OS, and that means UI and applications. So what do you do? You learn from that and plan for it from the start. You create one compartmentalized, standardized, binary-compatible base distro that has a comprehensive package management system. That includes the online services from which software is downloaded in-situ. From there you create sub-projects where people work on their preferred user interface plugins for the base distro. What you do after that is natural. Then the governing body maintains the independence and compatibility of the base distro as a non-GUI entity. They endorse a GUI plugin to be the installer standard, based on the desires of the community. Then redistributables are built as the community desires, for instance a minimum-sized no-GUI version, a CD-sized version, and a DVD-sized version. Then Sun endorses a certain configuration of this base distro+gui+apps as their recommended OS for short and long term support. So the OpenSolaris distro and packages would exist independently, but Sun would point at a certain version and say "we like this one". All of this can be done and re-done with or without the help of Sun or the OGB. If someone from Sun happens to do this, anyone paranoid of Sun Microsystems, Inc's motivations should feel free to not participate. But at the moment I think the above is the right sort of direction to go, so I'm onboard regardless of who leads to charge. -- This message posted from opensolaris.org _______________________________________________ indiana-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/indiana-discuss
