I have not been active on list for a while but I have to comment now. Mainly because
I already did.
I have been working with the open source eSmith for about a year, mainly as a Internet
Appliance Product Manager (but I could not
get the product completed before we field chapter 11) and more recently as an IT
consultant.
On the one hand I recently took a contracting position where I am integrating a custom
app into eSmith to sell as an appliance. Its
a good body of work and for the most part it does exactly what I need. There are some
application and architecture choices made
that will make my life more difficult (like using MySQL when MY app needs postGres).
So I am interested to see the approx aXon will
take.
Then I could just take the Open Source download, make my changes and live royalty free.
On the other hand, I would have to monitor all the security alerts, update all my
clients (I just got Caldera Volution working
perfectly when I learned about the eSmith NOC!), and continually test and review any
new/improved components going into the box.
Whenever I change a main component I lose a portion of the developer community as a
support base as well as the possibility of using
eSmith as a technical resource. I welcomed aXon as another resource of developers
getting into the internals of the system and
working out ways to change it. I also need Java, which they provide.
I thought about what eSmith actually provides.
In my opinion what I value from eSmith is:
1) A solid selection of core packages
2) A client user interface ( Simple, with the choices they need to make, not the ones
they need to pay me to make)
3) A power user - Consultant interface (IT Consulting tip #258: You can always charge
more when you go to the command line)
4) A big happy user community
5) A big happy well funded corperate entity to partner with when I land the 'big'
account
6) A NOC that can monitor my client boxes and proactivly fix and monitor them
And most importantly
7) A system pre-configured in line with commonly accepted best practices, what I used
to spend a considerable amount of time doing.
(Firewall rules, LDAP admin, qmail replacement, qmail web stats, starter website...)
I like the idea of aXon and what its goals are, a cutting edge distro with all the
packages I need at the expense of the large
userbase support and possible commercial help.
Maybe we can have some type of compromise, use aXon as a resource for a set of patches
and how-tos to push your vanella eSmith box
to the edge (and replace MySQL with PostGres should be the top priority). The more
you customize the more you lose the benefits of
the main project. I am very interested to see thier new management interface, the
current one makes my boxes seem slow to the
customers.
And for the record, my email was sent originally off-list, I did not intend to call
Barret 'rude' in public forum. One of the
reasons I like Open source development is becuase it breeds both technical and
business innovation, based on the best product and
service, rather then the best ad campaign (usually).
So I appologize for that.
I will download and play with aXon, possibly contribute and use it, but as soon as one
of my customers decides to pay me, I'll sign
up as an eSmith reseller.
Interesting enough my app is based in Enhydra (www.enhydra.org), an open source java
app server. They just pulled the Open Source
version of thier Enterprise version. My app is based on thier 'classic' version -
which remains open, but I was just in the initial
stages of porting it to the Enterprise version. So now I have to go discuss
licensing/forking/ and community on that list also.
The things I go throught for a high quality free platform.
Thanks,
-Aaron Held
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.metrony.com
===================================================================
As Isaac Newton would say now:
If I see further than others, it is because I stand on
the shoulders of giants too dumb to patent their discoveries.
(Gregory Palast, http://www.observer.co.uk/ )
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gordon Rowell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Jon Pamment" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: "'Barrett Gay'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2001 9:30 PM
Subject: Re: [e-smith-devinfo] E-Smith + 2.4 + XFS = aXon
> On Tue, Sep 11, 2001 at 11:11:38AM +1000, Jon Pamment <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Why "Off-List"? It is a development issue isn't it?
>
> I'm more than happy to discuss it on-list, but I felt it worthwhile to
> discuss this in detail with the aXon team. As I said, I was surprised
> that there was no contact before the announcement of the fork.
>
> I sincerely wish the aXon team all the best and am eager to work with
> them for the benefit of all. However, building, supporting and maintaining
> a distribution is a distinctly non-trivial task.
>
> I feel we would all be better served by thinking about how we
> could maintain two streams - one with 2.2.19+ext2 and another with
> 2.4+JFS/XFS/ext3
>
> For example, we could discuss how to provide hooks in the installer
> so that options were available for those who wanted the leading edge
> packages. I see this as a major win for all.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Gordon
> --
> Gordon Rowell [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> VP Engineering
> Network Server Solutions Group http://www.e-smith.com
> Mitel Networks Corporation http://www.mitel.com
>
>
> --
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