[csw-users] Blastwave and SFE

[Jonathan Wheeler]

> Hi All,
> 
> Quick self introduction -- Im a long time linux user/abuser who is slowly moving into
> the solaris/opensolaris space and enjoying every minute in doing so.
I'm in much the same position.
Welcome to the one true path to enlightenment. [0]

> Im flabbergasted to see why Blastwave, or something similar, hasnt got
> into mainstream solaris or even opensolaris.
I doubt we'd ever see BW integrating with the official "solaris".

Opensolaris/Nevada/Indiana? Maybe, but for support and liability
reasons, I expect that Sun will always want to keep solaris close to
their chest. Much as Redhat has fedora for the community to use & abuse.

Indiana, should it ever move beyond a mere mailing list thread and
actually become something usable, well that has some real potential.
Dennis has been directly talking to Ian about exactly this, I believe...


> Coming from a strong debian background, the most convenient tool one had
> at his disposal was apt-get. Installing and updating packages that lived
> on remote servers was just something every linux user would expect be
> available.
> 
> Its hard for me to comprehend how this is not available with something
> so mature as solaris.
You're not alone. To be clear though, this is more a SUN problem, then a
BW one. Without BW, the situation would be magnitudes worse, so it's
good to see that we've been making a real difference here.

> Also having the package source (upstream source + package maintainer diff +
> changelogs + package documentation) available through apt-get was a great help for people wanting to add their own patches to packages.
> 
> Im also concerned at seeing projects like SFE[0] working towards
> providing easy to access package information and spec files to the public without
> any collaboration with Blastwave. This appears to me as duplication
> of work and is fracturing the achievement of a common goal both projects
> are trying to achieve.
This may be a little more complex then it sounds. I haven't spent much
time with SFE, but it's my understanding that they're just targeting
Solaris 10+. Is this correct? Also, the big difference is that we
distribute binaries (with source being available via SVN), while SFE
technically doesn't do either.
In my mind, that makes BW a full service, while SFE seems more like a
ports/portage effort.

Please correct me if I have this all wrong.

Now that's not to say that we can't benefit from the hard work that
they've already done. :)
When I get some time, I'd like to do a comparison of our requested
packages list, and also the Sun companion CD, vs the SFE repository. If
there are some matches out there, I'd like to make a start on packaging
some of these apps - in theory, much of the hard work has already been done.

Now, where did I put that spare time of mine... I'm sure it's in here
somewhere! *rustle rustle*.

> 
> Im interested in the Blastwave communities thoughts on this and whether
> there is a strong push for the Blastwave project , or something very
> similar, to be an _official_ opensolaris project.

Well you have mine now, but I hardly speak on behalf of BW, I'll let
some of the other heavyweights and long timers chime in from here :)
Guys?


> Would anyone like to share thoughts or point me towards some documentation, threads,
> blog posts that describes the history and reasons why this isnt a combined effort?
Predates me sorry.


> Cheers and thanks for reading my concerns (or rant). :)
No problem, I think it's a very good question, and certainly very
relevant to the BW effort!

JW

[0] My funny sense of humor - this was a joke!