On Wednesday 05 March 2008 23:05:03 Martin Hejl wrote: > Hi all, > > KP Kirchdoerfer wrote: > > I always preferred the second one and that's, what I started with to > > enhance/change it: > > > > "LEAF is a Linux Embedded Appliance Framework. > > Branches provides various appliance-oriented tasks: LAN/WAN router, > > Internet border router/firewalls, wireless access point (WAP), network > > storage (NAS/SAN), Private Branch eXchange (PBX) and even telemetry > > boxes." > > > > (characters unkown) > > whatever the latest proposal might be, I'll just quote that one, since > it doesn't matter for the point I want to make. Ultimately, I don't care > what the project description is (well, within reason) - in the end, no > matter how finely crafted our project description is (possibly the > result of months of discussion), it will probably not make a huge > difference (IMHO). Having a good product, with a strong community > (developers, people writing docs, people helping others on the lists) > would make a difference (again IMHO). > > But anyway, my concern with the proposed description is this: what's so > special about a NAS or a PBX that it needs to be mentioned in the > project description? VOIP was a hot topic a short while ago, maybe > that's why it's "needed" from a marketing point of view, but to me it's > just one of the many things that a LEAF box can be used for (and IMHO, > one it's not terribly suited for, since a full blown PBX needs storage, > for voice mail and the like, which is an add-on, but not a core feature > for LEAF. Same goes for SAN/NAS, I guess - it's possible, but a "real" > SAN/NAS box should have all kinds of RAID drivers available, up to date > networking protocols, plenty of RAM (why waste precious RAM that could > be used for caching on a ramdisk?)). Anyway, just because it can be > done, I don't think it should be part of the project description. We > have a build environment available, so anything that's theoretically > possible can be done, if somebody is willing to invest the energy to do > it. I've used my leaf box for "war-driving" (well, the friendly kind, > not trying to break into other networks, just to find out who's > interfering with my WLAN). It works nicely for that; it also works > nicely with a WISPY Spectrum Analyzer. Should we add that to our project > description as well? (A soekris or WRAP box will work nicely running on > battery, and it will obviously run on many laptops - so maybe we should > even add "mobile appliance" to the description as well?). Or maybe even > something to do with "Green IT" (seems to be the hot topic at the CeBit > right now), since it will run just fine on computers that don't require > a 300+W power supply? > > In short - I feel that the core strengths of LEAF (Bering uClibc and its > yet unnamed successor in particular) are network related stuff > (firewall, router, AP). It can do many other things as well, but I think > those things are already covered with the "Although it can be used in > other ways; it's primarily used as..." part of our current description. > If a change is required, maybe it could be as simple as changing that > part to "Although it can be used in many other ways; it's primarily used > as..." > > Just my 2 cents - as I said, I don't really care one way or the other, I > just wanted to address what seems to be "feature creep" in the project > description to me, when I read the current proposals. And I guess I had > to voice my opinion, given the fact that kp used the "speak up, or I'll > assume you agree" approach.
Hi Martin; I'm also no fan of buzzwords; in the above description they has been included, because I thought it may justify the proposed change in the LEAF acronym from Linux Embedded Appliance Firewall to a Linux Embedded Appliance Framework. I agree with you, that the main usage scenario is to build a network appliance with LEAF and most of them also acting as firewall. Anyway I think it has grown from a "firewall" to a "framework". - some of the available packages indicate, that users use it as a small printerbox (p9100.lrp), as a PBX (yate.lrp) or as small fileserver (samba.lrp). - with the new config system in Bering-uClibc 3.x it's pretty easy to use the core, add some special lrp's and build your own appliance by just changing leaf.cfg and configdb without losing ability to easily make use of updated packages on the LEAF pages. So the description itself is somewhat secondary to me. kp ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2008. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse0120000070mrt/direct/01/ _______________________________________________ leaf-devel mailing list leaf-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/leaf-devel
