Sorry that this may be off the topic of development but there has been a lot
of conversation on this list lately about the future of the distro.
There have been many questions concerning the direction of the GPL SME
Server. I certainly can't speak for the community, but I can speak for
contribs.org and its core team. We have been working out our priorities and
how to get them done, and I'd like to share our thoughts.
This is only a rough plan and we can certainly be overwhelmed by events but
here's where we are:
Our immediate goals:
- Build a solid infrastructure at contribs.org. We have gone from about
350K hits per month to over a million per month in two weeks. Talk about a
stress test :> We're adding hardware and working hard to build a faster,
more efficient interface. We hope to bring this online in the next 30 days
or so.
- Get out a GPL version of the 6.0 ISO. We have had some great help from a
lot of you on this and hope to have this out in the next few weeks. We're
not promising but we're goaling for a Happy New Year. This ISO will have
only minor cosmetic changes and the latest bug fixes that we can manage.
This prediction will clearly come back to haunt me in the near future. We
now have a MUCH better understanding of why the Mitel folks never announced
release dates :>
First Quarter 2004:
- Keep the RedHat 7.3 base. The SME Server is a solid, reliable, and
feature rich project just the way it is because Mitel invested thousands of
hours into making it that way. Their gift to us is huge. We simply don't
have the resources to second guess the build platform in the near term. Nor
do we need to. This distro will last a long while with bug and security
fixes only.
- Fix RH 7.3 errata and look for help in maintaining packages. This help
could come from the community and/or from external sources. It's not
possible to determine the best course quite yet.
- Establish a methodology for relasing 7.3 errata and security fixes
- Establish a bug tracking system and knowledgebase that allows for
community input and help.
- Establish, if possible, a "certification" process for contribs that will
allow the community to know that a certain contrib has been tested and is
known to work. We have a lot of work to do on this before we're ready to
roll this one out.
- Establish a metodology for rolling out new rev's to update for errata and
feature enhancements. Hard to shcedule these but we're goaling for "release
early and often". We still stress that we're running on a 7.3 base during
this process. We can enhance and maintain without having to build a new
platform.
Second Quarter 2004:
- Here is where we should have a serious look under the hood and see where
the RH community as a whole is moving. By then we should be able to better
forecast what the true life cycle of the RH base is and potentially find
some other sources of help to migrate if required.
Third Quarter 2004:
- Begin the base beta process for a new distro (again, only if required)
Fourth Quarter 2004:
- Continue base beta and, if very lucky, start looking at a release
condidate
First Quarter 2005:
- Relaese final new distro
These are frankly very aggressive development goals and we'll need all the
help we can get to hit them.
None of this is to say that discussion of potential new distros or any other
thoughts shouldn't take place now. It's just to say that as we look at the
"real" requirements of doing this work, two things immediately happen.
1. We admire the folks at Mitel who "really" got it done
2. We better understand the huge body of work ahead of us.
I truly believe we can do this. There is a huge wealth of talent in the
community and we have been overwhelmed at the offers for help in personal
efforts, money, and hardware. If we pull together and are patient, this
will be a true open source community success story. Contribs.org is
committed to this project. We hope you are too.
That's my 2 cents.
Cheers,
-jeff
On behalf of contribs.org
Jeff Coleman
Resource Strategies, Inc.
"The Intelligent Use of Technology"
Tollfree: 877-718-7628 x401
Fax: 520-797-0394
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http://www.rstrat.com
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