Nicely put, Jeff, and entirely true IMO -- regarding the best interests of OpenAFS.
I'll try calling later this p.m. Kim On 9/7/2012 10:20 AM, Jeffrey Altman wrote: > Earlier this month I resigned from the OpenAFS Elders. I want to > briefly explain the reasons why I felt the need to step down. > > After the OpenAFS Gatekeepers presented the unfunded OpenAFS Wish List > at the Spring 2007 HEPiX meeting, the OpenAFS Elders realized that it > would be impossible for OpenAFS to make headway in the current > environment. Lustre would soon be purchased by Sun Microsystems for > $250 million. NFSv4 was far behind AFS in capabilities but was backed > by dozens of companies that were devoting significant resources and a > IETF working group had been formed to standardize it. Various operating > system vendors indicated that they would contribute to funding the > development of missing first class file system functionality such as > alternate data streams, extended attributes, byte range locking, etc. > but only if we could clarify the trademark issues with IBM and that was > not forthcoming. If OpenAFS was going to have a stable future it needed > a technology company that was dependent on its functionality but sold a > service that was not itself a file system. > > In October 2007, with the support of the OpenAFS Elders I founded Your > File System, Inc. (YFSI) to create a services business on top of a next > generation successor to AFS3. YFSI's long term goal is to supply a file > storage ecosystem that permits individuals and organizations to stretch > their storage across internally managed data centers, external host > providers such as Rackspace and Cloud IAAS systems such as Azure and > EC2. On top of the ecosystem YFSI will sell a secure federated file > sharing service that will knock the socks off DropBox, Box, and other > copy-and-sync services. > > For more than six years I have fulfilled the fiduciary responsibilities > required of an OpenAFS Elder and placed OpenAFS ahead of my other > responsibilities. YFSI has funded the gatekeepers and their roles as > bug fixers of last resort, release managers, code reviewers, and code > integrators. YFSI has sponsored various AFS workshops, given > presentations at AFS Workshops and HEPiX on its progress, and directly > contributed significant quantities of code to OpenAFS across the entire > code base. This included the majority of the Windows native client > work, RX stability and performance improvements, corrections to the use > of pthreads, and much more. > > In order for YFSI to meet the critical needs of the community, YFSI > must accelerate its growth and product development cycle. I have > resigned as OpenAFS Elder because I can no longer put OpenAFS first. I > believe that I am best able to serve the needs of the OpenAFS community > by making Your File System, Inc. a success. I look forward to > continuing my participation in the community in my role as OpenAFS > Gatekeeper. > > Jeffrey Altman > _______________________________________________ OpenAFS-info mailing list [email protected] https://lists.openafs.org/mailman/listinfo/openafs-info
