On 5/7/07, Brian Gupta <brian.gupta at gmail.com> wrote: > > Common across what? Really, what is the scope? Even after reading the > > whole thread a couple of times I'm unsure whether you're trying to provide > > something for Solaris/SXCE specifically, a new distribution that doesn't > > exist yet, or trying to be all things to all distributions. > > Specifically to an "OpenSolaris Reference Distribution", which does > not exist yet.
OK, then the discussion needs to replace the rather woolly (and highly context dependent) "OpenSolaris" with "the OpenSolaris Reference Distribution". That brings much more clarity and focus. > > > 2. Common repository and OpenSolaris community. > > > > Who would the repository serve? I would expect a repository to serve > > the users of one particular distribution, so which one? Given that > > there isn't an OpenSolaris distribution as such at the present time, > > which distribution do you pick? > > Specifically to an "OpenSolaris Reference Distribution", which does > not exist yet. > > It would also provide support for those distros that follow the > OpenSolaris standards. ...the "OpenSolaris Reference Distribution" standards. (Whatever those are.) > > > 2. Can OpenSolaris replace JDS with a more generic Gnome > > > > I'm not sure this is even a valid question. JDS is the Solaris desktop. > > Any distribution can use whatever desktop it wishes. (Indeed, I would > > expect that to be a key distinguishing feature.) > > JDS is part of OpenSolaris. (Check the source tree) JDS is part of Solaris. JDS development occurs within the OpenSolaris community. Different contexts. If you were to ask "Can a hypothetical OpenSolaris Reference Distribution replace JDS with a more generic Gnome?" then that's a valid question. Can it? Sure. Would it? I don't know. (Personally, I wouldn't, but I would make sure that anyone could take the reference distribution, zap JDS, and substitute their desktop of choice, and maybe even provide them the mechanism to do so. Or even have a "bare" distribution and a "desktop" version that had JDS layered on, just to show how to layer a desktop on top of the core.) > > > 4. Is there a mandate that OpenSolaris must maintain backward > > > compatibility with Solaris? > > > > Yes. Solaris is expected to provide strong compatibility guarantees. > > As OpenSolaris is the foundation codebase for Solaris, we cannot > > break compatibility. But whether any distribution is compatible with > > Solaris, or even with older releases of itself, is up to that distribution. > > At least by having compatibility in the foundations we can let > > distributions be compatible if they wish. > > Earlier you said that Solaris is just another distro. Now it's the standard? (Well, it currently is, but that's not the point...) However, consider that multiple distributions may be built from the same codebase. That includes both those guaranteeing compatibility and those that don't. In order for those that guarantee compatibility to exist, the codebase itself has to managed to provide the required compatibility guarantees. Keeping the codebase "pure" still allows for impure derivatives; the converse isn't true. -- -Peter Tribble http://www.petertribble.co.uk/ - http://ptribble.blogspot.com/
