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. > > >
