Brian Gupta wrote:
So, I'd expect to see some documents from you that describe this
product. Have you a 1-pager that describes the basics?
<template deleted>
Ok, I think I see where the vision is going to hit a wall. There is
definitely a process disconnect between agile development and Solaris
development.
In agile development, you begin with a list of simple requirements
without a detailed description of how you are going to get there.
I don't see the disconnect. In fact, I think we are in
complete agreement. A 1-pager is simply a template for
recording a "list of simple requirements without a detailed
description of how you are going to get there". How else
can a group of developers even start down a path unless
there is some common understanding of where they intend to go?
Nothing in this "list" is intended or expected to be detailed
or in depth; rather, it shouldn't take someone more than an
hour to pull one together. In fact, here's my first pass on it.
Anyone else - please feel free to take it from here and modify
things to match your understanding. (yes, this cries out for
a shared wiki - anyone?)
-John
Project Description
Indiana is intended to be a product - an OpenSolaris
distribution with a regular release schedule.
Project Team:
Needed...
Risks and Assumptions
The relationship between Indiana and the other
OpenSolaris Distros is unclear, as its relationship
with Sun's various Solaris releases.
There is probably a dependency on the Emancipation
project.
Unresolved issues include release binding,
compatability and stability constraints, etc.
We assume that we can start with an existing distro
and work on improving it rather than starting from
scratch.
Business Summary
Problem Area
Think of this as the next natural step in the open sourcing of
Solaris that began in 2005. In other words, the source has been in
the community for a while, and now we're moving the binary version
and related machinery into the community too. Why? Because even in
open source, it's the binaries that people want. Furthermore,
we're not presenting OpenSolaris as crisply as we could be.. In
particular, people familiar with how Linux works (and that's A LOT
of people) hear the name "OpenSolaris", assume it's the community
version of Solaris, and are confused to find out that isn't
actually true.
This is actually just one part of what I've been referring to as
"the familiarity problem" (formerly known as "the usability gap"
until I realized that "usability" was relative). I.e., that while
Solaris has compelling technology, that technology remains somewhat
inaccessible to users that are familiar with the Linux environment
(and, again, that's a BIG market). Addressing the familiarity
problem is another big goal of the Indiana project. In other words,
the goal is to make what Solaris has to offer available to the
larger market that by and large is more familiar with Linux as
things stand today.
Market/Requester
Ian Murdock/Sun Marketing?
How will you know when you are done?
There will be a new "Indiana distro" available every 6 months.
Technical Description
So, what will be the big features in Indiana? You tell me--and,
indeed, a discussion of features could be a great way to actually
get off on the right foot here given the somewhat rocky start so
far.. My list: packaging, installation, GNU userland alongside
"Solaris classic userland", and laptop support (see what I mean
that there are already people working on these things?).
The big feature from my point of view though is the 6 mo. timed
release cycle. Timed release cycles have done wonders to introduce
predictability into other open source projects (e.g., Gnome,
Ubuntu). And 6 mos. is the clear winner in terms of frequency among
Linux community/developer distros--it's just enough time to do
interesting work AND have a reasonably long hardening period so the
thing is stable.
Details
In Scope
Needed...
Out of Scope
Needed...
Packaging & Delivery
Needed...
Dependencies
Needed...
Resources & Schedule
Prototype Availability
Using agile development methods, we would like to start a sequence
of develop/feedback cycles to refine this proposal, validate our
initial assumptions and clarify constraints. We expect to form
an initial project team, select a base distro and do some initial
experimentation within the next couple of weeks.
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