| 1. The datastore
| 2. OS Updates
| 3. File Sharing
| 4. Activity Modification
| 5. Bitfrost
| 6. Power management
On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 11:02 PM, C. Scott Ananian [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at 8:18 PM, Benjamin M. Schwartz
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
really surprisingly short. Each item on the list has been debated to a
stationary point over the last two years, so all that is left is to make
a
final decision for the engineers to execute. Each task could be
completed
or hugely improved by a single developer in a few months, provided that
we
do not allow changes to the requirements, and the developers are not
asked
to split their time and focus.
I do not believe that either of these statements is correct.
We are not lacking in decisions: we have substantially complete
designs; we are lacking implementation.
Each of your items is not the work of a single developer in a few
months: solving these problems is realistically a year's work at
least, if we have a single developer working full time on each.
I have experience with numbers 1, 3, and 5, and am the principal person
responsible for 4 right now. I would say that 3 and 4 are definitely within
the single dev in a few months time frame; depending on the definition, 4
is in the as soon as currently applied patches percolate into production
time frame. The further work on 4 - already started - is in the area of
activity signatures, which is actually encroaching on 5. In a few full-time
months of a single developer, this would put 4 at a place which other
platforms could envy, and make concrete strides towards 5, to the point
where security would be better, not worse, than other modern platforms
(though I agree that there is plenty more work to fulfill the true promise
of Bitfrost).
I agree that 1 is not so simple; while a rockstar developer might be able to
solve all our problems in a two-month all-nighter, 6 months to a year is a
more realistic timeframe to get something really solid and stable.
What I have accomplished - admittedly too slowly - on Develop, I have done
in under half-time commitment. I have made it pretty clear that I was
available for full-time work, pretty cheaply, but not for free. I could work
to contract, with payment working out to around what the GSoC students are
getting, and have Develop and Bitfrost in a significantly better place by
the end of September (activity signatures done, bitfrost privileges
by-application secure on that basis, the Terminal/Journal bitfrost
loophole mendedl; Develop collaboration/source control starting to be
usable).
ps. and, of course, you've neglected software for kids that does
things kids want to do, powerful and pervasive collaboration and
mesh networking in your list of items.
All of which are slightly less sucky in their current state than the items
mentioned, I think, but definitely need work too.
To sum up: if this is a matter of resources, just hire people. Me, and
others who want it - I have heard marcopg complaining that he should be
full-time, I think. In my case, the worst that could happen is that I don't
come through, and, since I am asking for contract work, that would mean you
don't pay me, so it would be identical to current situation. The best would
be that for less than the price of a classroom-full of XOs, you would get
large steps on two of these list items in a couple of months.
___
Devel mailing list
Devel@lists.laptop.org
http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
