[csw-users] Blastwave from Solaris 8 to Solaris 10

[Brandorr]

Dennis what resources would be freed up, if you were to drop support
for the S8 tree.

I am trying to understand what the resource costs would be to have two
trees? From the build farm to the number of man hours per week (that
would be required)..

I think it is a mistake to kill S8/Sparc development. There are many
commercial packages that have either only recently certified on S10,
are not yet certified for S10, or aren't yet certifying for S10 x86.
(In many cases we are waiting for ISVs to port to x86 before upgrading
an existing SOlaris 8 Sparc system to S10). In addition many Sun
customers never moved to S9, because it wasn't compelling.

(Basically for us Solaris 10's killer app, was x86 support.)

That all said, we don't use Blastwave in our Enterprise, but I don't
think you should stop updating the tree.

-Brian

On 9/17/07, Dennis Clarke <dclarke at blastwave.org> wrote:
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> Subject: Blastwave from Solaris 8 to Solaris 10
> From:    "Dennis Clarke" <dclarke at blastwave.org>
> Date:    Mon, September 17, 2007 23:17
> ---------------------------------------------------------
>
> > [ from Ken Mays ]
> > 1. Blastwave proposed to end the development of
> > Solaris 8 packages by Q4 of Y2007. This was something
> > discussed by the maintainers and Dennis Clarke can
> > further answer that question (i.e. he has the majority
> > vote). The Solaris 8 CSW repository was to be archived
> > for snapshot purposes and no longer under primary
> > support.
>
> Ref : Solaris Operating System Life Cycle
>       http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/lifecycle.xml
>
>     : Blastwave Sparc Solaris 8 installs from one mirror site
>       http://www.blastwave.org/images/Solaris_8_Sparc_usage_06-07.png
>
>   We are now well past Last Ship Date for Solaris 8 and I can report
>   some significant drops in Solaris 8 users since then. The Solaris 8
>   x86 users are virtually nonexistent and I would go so far as to say
>   that the only users left on the planet are in the Blastwave project.
>
>   However, anything compiled on Solaris 8 regardless of architecture
>   will run as expected on Solaris 9 or 10. That is a convenient truth
>   that we live with.
>
>   When a user compiles an application on Solaris 8 x86 they are not
>   necessarily working without cause nor are they somehow lacking
>   common sense.  They are working on an operating system that complies
>   with strict standards and it is a UNIX(tm) system.  Once the
>   application works we can be assured that it will also work on both
>   Solaris 9 and Solaris 10.
>
>   Reality has shown us that a lot of organizations, for policy reasons,
>   will not move from Solaris 8.  If we attempt to force these users
>   away from Solaris 8, via abandonment, then we risk that they will
>   gravitate towards Linux where they *perceive* that they can get
>   everything that they need.  We do not need to feed that process.
>
>   Our primary concern is that Blastwave releases many packages that
>   are duplications on Solaris 10 and even on Solaris 9.  This concern
>   is quite real and it has led to a condition known as "Blastwave
>   bloat". A simple install of vim or apache can lead to many hundreds
>   of software packages being downloaded and installed. Many of those
>   packages are outright duplications on Solaris 10. In our defense I
>   would say they are version upgrades to libraries and software found
>   in Solaris 10 that otherwise would not get updated.  We need to
>   create a software tree that stands on its own and can be updated
>   continually without any impact on the core OS. This is a key
>   Blastwave feature; software isolation and ease of update.
>
>   Solaris users want and need access to reasonable open source
>   software and they have very few options outside of Blastwave.
>   These are things that Linux users take for granted and have done
>   so for years.   The reality is that we want Solaris reliability
>   and durability along with Linux utility.  The most recent
>   production release of Solaris 10 8/07 includes a Companion CD
>   which contains only 110+ software titles and many are terribly out
>   of date.  More important to the market is the fact that these
>   software titles are not supported, not updated and only available
>   via arcane download processes.
>
>       So we are left with a few options.
>
>   One option that we have on the table is to simply ignore the facts
>   in a shifting market.  This is hardly reasonable.  Blastwave was
>   created because we, Solaris users, need to create and freely provide
>   software one to another.  We have a need and we work together in order
>   to ensure that any Solaris user may have access to a wide array of
>   open source software options.  My founding dream was to assure the
>   Solaris market that open source software would always be freely
>   available to them and that it would be maintained and kept up to date.
>   It would be current. Most important is that it would be reasonable
>   for their needs.  Blastwave started with the best Solaris version
>   at the time and that was Solaris 8.  Times have changed and thus, so
>   must we.
>
>   The current Solaris market is dominated by Solaris 10.  This is
>   a numerical fact.  By the end of 2007 we will be in a safe position
>   to make a final snapshot of the Solaris 8 software tree and leave
>   it available.  The software packages being built at Blastwave from
>   that point onwards should be done with the best Solaris at the time.
>   That would be the most recent release of Solaris 10.  The Blastwave
>   team will draw up an action plan which triggers a version migration
>   by January 1st 2008.
>
>   Blastwave has done an excellent job of building software for the
>   Solaris market.  To continue as leaders we now need to look closely
>   at Solaris 10 and I ask that we discuss viable plans.
>
>   I want to thank everyone for their incredible work and support over
>   the past five years.
>
> Dennis Clarke
>
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-- 
- Brian Gupta

http://opensolaris.org/os/project/nycosug/