Alan DuBoff's Weblog The only thing better than "meat 'n potatoes" is "meat 'n meat"!
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One of the greatest programming editors returns to Solaris x86

As the boy wonder once said, "Holy $#!T Batman, one of the greatest programming editors is back on Solaris x86!".

For 5+ years I have used a copy of Visual SlickEdit v5, because slickedit wouldn't sell me the last version, 6, that was sold for Solaris on x86. The current version was 10 or 11, but the new version is called 2007. I have been hounding the company to bring this back for several years, and it's back!

There was some keyboard problems in the previous versions when used on recent builds of nevada, so hopefully this solves that problem (the SPARC version was much better behaved, but due to abundance of x86 hardware, I've shy'd away from getting the SPARC version).

I just downloaded and will install this trial. They even have the product listed on the buy it now. Yeah, some will say $400 isn't cheap for an editor...but it's worth every penny for me.

This editor will emulate vi, emacs, and even brief (I use this emulation myself). There's about a dozen different emulations. Clark Maurer worked at IBM and wrote a famous editor called "E", which was the roots to SlickEdit, which grew into Visual SlickEdit.

Trial Download from SlickEdit, click on image.

SVOSUG Network Auto-Magic - Tonight! Mar. 22nd, 7:30pm - SCA03

SVOSUG Network Auto-Magic - Thurs. Mar. 22nd, 7:30pm - SCA03

SVOSUG has what I consider a special meeting this month.

John Beck will be giving a presentation on his OpenSolaris project, Network Auto-Magic. You can read about this project on the OpenSolaris webpage.

The reason this is such a special meeting to me is that Solaris/OpenSolaris has been known for being a server product, and user applications have not been a primary focus. The Network Auto-Magic is to automate network configuration, something that is of need for mobile computers.

This project does represent a milestone event for OpenSolaris! It seems Sun dropped support for laptops in Solaris 8 on x86, the latest builds of Solaris/OpenSolaris do in fact run much better on laptops, and a lot of work has gone into the code to help out. The Network Auto-Magic project really does represent the evolution of Solaris/OpenSolaris as we are seeing it change and werever it will go.

This should prove to be a very interesting talk, please feel free to call-in if you're not in the area. I'm told the polycoms will be setup around the room. This will allow for a more interactive environment for the folks that call-in.

For those in need of something special, John likes plain M&Ms!

 When: Thursday, Mar. 22nd, 2007
Where: Sun's Santa Clara Campus Auditorium (SCA03 upstairs)
 What: Network Auto-Magic
 Time: 7:30pm-10:00pm
  Map: http://blogs.sun.com/roller/resources/aland/scasj_dirmap.pdf

Call-in Info:

Toll Free: 866-545-5227
Intnl/pay: 865-673-6950
Conference: 809-64-14

Elluminate Live...possible solution for community collaboration

Folks, I've had this wild idea that we can do better with collaborating, that if we can extend out reach to the network, we could get people involved that are on the opposite side of the globe, like down under (hi JamesM, AlanH!;-), but we want to hear from you folks also...you would get bored listening to us all the time...:-/

I don't have enough time to get this setup this month for our SVOSUG, but trying to convince the speaker for the April meeting to consider using this software, to see if we can pull off a "virtual meeting". (April will be our 2 year anniverary for SVOSUG)

I've heard that Sun owns a 50 client license for this software, and there's some flash-o-mercials, here's the meeting based software one:

Elluminate Live Meeting software

The software is written in Java, so runs on Solaris.

I know that 50 clients can be a problem, but I think if we can get 50 connected online for a meeting, we can then try to get more clients.

Would like to get your thoughts! Please send them to the opensolaris-discuss mailing list. If you're not a member please subscribe by sending an email here and offer them.

As OGB member I would help OpenSolaris forge forward into the future!

OGB Candidate Statement

I will try to outline some of my thoughts and goals for the OGB, should 
the community vote for me and I end up with one of the seats on the board. 
The previous board has done a top notch job, IMO, and has some great 
talent which it was comprised of. A couple of the current members are 
running for office again, as well as new folks stepping up and tossing 
their hat in the ring. The next year will be a very important year for 
OpenSolaris, it will be going through changes, and no matter who the 7 OGB 
members end up being, of the candidates I don't feel there are any bad 
choices. There is no one person that can pull things to their side, not 
with 7 seats on the board. So use your votes wisely and may we have a 
great year no matter who wins.

Constitution

The previous board came up with a well thought out, and clear 
constitution. Some points have been made by the community criticizing some 
sections and/or wording. In general I believe the constitution is good 
enough for the future board to ratify and move forward. The constitution 
will most likely change, and it seems the intention of the previous board 
was to do just that. The OGB should move forward with it and as things 
evolve, so can the constitution. The OGB should make every effort to 
notify and explain any changes to the community once our constitution is 
in place.

Non-Profit Organization

I'm not sure I advocate this or not, I believe this is something that the 
community should decide as a whole. We must consider that at some point, 
OpenSolaris could need operating expenses, and to accept donations, a 
non-profit organization is often needed. Certainly for monetary donations 
for most companies. Currently Sun is supporting the majority of the 
community's expenses, but we shouldn't expect that to always be the case.
Having a way for people to donate could allow us some freedom in being 
able to promote ourselves, or help to grow, as an organization. This is 
quite a bit of work to go through this process. We have enough other stuff 
to do that I don't know if this could also be tackled by the OGB. Maybe 
Sun can help us out in this regard.

Infrastructure

I'm going to list some items which I will place into this category I've 
called infrastructure. There are several pieces that are in the works but 
not implemented within our community which need to be taken care of.

1) Source Code Management
   Without source code management it is difficult for community
   members to work with the sources. This will be key in moving
   forward to help educate the community. While this is something
   that needs to be worked on by Sun, the OGB should assist in
   whatever way they can.

2) Bug Tracking Database
   The current bug tracking system is not setup to work well with
   the community members, and much of it can't be seen from outside
   the Sun firewall.

3) Architecture board/committee of some type
   These people will be key in retaining the integrity and stability
   of Solaris/OpenSolaris as we know it today. I will list this in
   my goals section. I believe that it is possible to consolidate
   some of the current architecture committees which exist inside
   Sun today. As an example, LSARC is responsible for layered
   software, and WSARC is for web services. In reality, a majority
   of development is done on web based solutions, and I would think
   we can consolidate both of these committees into one combined.
   
   It might be possible to have just hardware and software arcs,
   whoever is elected will need to sort this out. We clearly need
   some type of architecture board for OpenSolaris.
   
4) Community Process Management
   I think it's pretty clear that as OpenSolaris evolves, we will
   need some type of guideline to how communities are formed as
   well as who it is determined who will be the "facilitator" for
   lack of a better term. I'm using facilitator since that is the
   word in the current constitution. The current system of having
   a community member propose a given community and another member
   replying with +1 just won't scale well into the future. This is
   no fault of anyone, just a ramification of evolution, as I see
   it.

Removing encumbered sources

It should be the goal of our community to replace any of the encumbered 
sources that exist in "closed" as we know it today. I state this should be 
a community goal, I don't know how much work there will be to remove all 
of it, but OpenSolaris needs to exist as a free and openly distributed 
system, with no encumbrances residing within it to give us a genuine open 
and free source base to build on. The OGB is not responsible for doing 
this work, but should consider how Sun and our community can tackle this 
together.

Education

We are still very much in need of getting education from Sun's engineers 
to understand the sources, and to be able to work on them in a competent 
way. I very much have been pushing to get a solution where we can 
broadcast, in real-time, over the inet so that all of our community members 
can participate in educational events to bring folks up to speed. This 
would also include user group meetings, IMO.

I would like to see a classification of developer, which would allow them 
to work on and/or submit and follow through with a putback, which today is 
facilitated through a Sun sponsor. This could be key as the sources move 
outside the Sun firewall, and there will be quite a chunk of decisions 
that will need to be made in regard to only the source code management 
piece, which is slated to happen in the next few months, AFAIK.

Obligation

There is an obligation to the creator and/or holder of the copyright to 
Solaris before it was open sourced. By this I mean that Sun has invested a 
substantial amount of time and money in creating Solaris as it is today, 
and their vested interest needs to be protected. Sun continues to invest
in OpenSolaris, and I think we should ensure that we have their support.
When the sources move outside the Sun firewall, our obligation as a
community will become that much more important to retain and develop the
sources in the same way it has been done for the past 15+ years. In the
future other companies could invest in OpenSolaris development, and many
of the IHV/OEMs are doing that already.

It is important that we, as a community, understand that Sun will be a 
part of our community, just like anyone else, as we move into the future, 
albeit Sun is a very special member.  Changes are currently coming from 
Sun today, and this will expand to our community more as we move forward, 
and from my view it is the responsibility of the OGB to oversee things so 
our community can continue to progress.  At the same time we need to 
insure we hold the same standards for what is there today.

I am especially thinking of ON (OS and Networking) which comprises 
OpenSolaris as we know it today.  Since this encompasses the kernel, 
drivers, and other core technologies, it is imperative that these 
components are guarded tightly, so that the integrity doesn't fall behind 
and meets the same quality it has become.

More important than the community obligation to Sun,is the obligation to 
our community in general, which Sun is a major stakeholder and member
of in itself. The OGB is obligated to do the best for the community as a 
whole, and should sacrifice little, if anything, should we wish to keep 
OpenSolaris the great work as we know it today.

Legal Issues

First, I want to make it very clear that the OGB are not legal counselors, 
and as such should not act in such capacity.  However, there will be some 
legal issues arise as we move forward, that is almost certain.  Sun does 
have legal staff who can assist us with any problems that arise, and the 
OGB should leverage them when needed.  It is likely that Sun's would have 
some responsibility to manage any conflicts that arise in regard to 
licensing, since they hold the license on the majority of code in 
OpenSolaris today.  In the future this may change, and other entities 
could contribute code which needs to be defended by them, and even in such 
a case the Sun legal can at least advise us to decide what to do. The 
current CAB/OGB uses them in this capacity, AFAIK, and so should the new 
board.

I bring up legal since there was several questions aimed at candidates 
which focused around legal issues. This is unfortunately a reality for 
software and due diligence needs to be performed, and I believe the OGB 
should oversee that it does get done.

It is important to understand that most of us are engineers.  The less 
time an engineer needs to spend preparing for the bar, the more quality 
time which can be spent, *in* the bar. All of the GPL vs.  CDDL vs.  Quad 
Core Licensing and other obscure questions, I'm not sure what you want me 
to tell you. Discuss it with the other OGB, decide what to do if anything, 
consult Sun is need be and/or respond to the 3rd party if any involved...

Personally, I advocate the FreeBSD license, period. If you truly want 
sources to be free, license them under the BSD 3 clause. It's simple, 
there are no real restrictions that have been found in it, and it is one 
of the only licenses to have stood up in court of law. It is completely 
CDDL compatible, as well as any of the other popular licenses. You don't 
have to have already passed the bar to understand it. Short, simple, and 
does what it needs to do. Please do not confuse my preference in license 
in any disrespect for CDDL, the BSD license wasn't a choice unfortunately.

GNU/FSF/XORG/APACHE/ETC

I intentionally have this section under Legal, because if you have any 
questions about GPL, this text would say, see "Legal Issues". So, let's 
talk about the software.

I see it like this.  We don't have too much choice in the matter.  
Solaris/OpenSolaris has a lot of GNU code within it, when we think about 
the community as a whole.  We need more of it, not less of it to build 
quality distributions.  We can't afford to be at odds with these folks.  
It's not as if we need to be family with them, but many of them are family 
to us anyway.  I have many friends I've worked with over the years that 
devote their lives to GPL and/or Linux, and are as passionate as many of 
us are about OpenSolaris.  If we truly believe in opensource software, we 
can't let licensing get between us.  

Userland Software

We need more of this, and I would be supportive of having a separate gate 
for open source software beyond the kernel.  Xorg, KDE, JDS, Apache, 
MySQL, Postgres, etc...I intentionally paired up KDE and JDS and MySQL and 
Postgres on purpose.  We need to welcome all software, with no denial or 
discrimination based on or religion. race, color, creed, religion, national 
origin, sex, marital status, etc...a marriage for Sun's distribution 
should not have impact on our community having more software. If our 
community runs into a problem with quality of this userland code, I would 
advocate placing some type of requirements, but this is not a problem for 
us at this point. This is an area that can help us greatly, if we can 
accept and build packages as a nightly, we can amass most of the bulk of 
software, and we can build them with the system libraries!

We do have some issues between c++ ABIs, AFAIK, still to this day. It 
might be worth the ARC's time (should we form such committees) to look into placing a requirement that all 
c++ sources use Sun's compiler, which are linked into the OpenSolaris 
system (what is OpenSolaris as we know it today, or ON).

Goals

I think we need to be realistic about what can be accomplished in a year, 
but I think we can make strong headway as we pick up speed, and snowball 
into whatever OpenSolaris should end up to be.

The items I point out in the Infrastructure section up near the top are 
really key areas that our community needs to focus on, and kind of in the 
order they're listed there, IMO. Without a solid foundation, our community 
will suffer.

Educating our community is something we need to focus strongly on. And 
this needs to scale across the internet. Collaborating in real-time will 
help us greatly to be cost effective. We can make headway on this, but it 
will be a continuing process that we have to work on always, and be able 
to train new members of our community on a continual basis. Creating and 
being able to archive this data will be key for us to be able to re-use 
some of this if we do it properly.


Why should you vote for me?

I have a lot of experience with both open source software and Solaris,
from both a business and development perspective.  I am somewhat
familiar with some of the process used on Solaris today, and continue
to learn.  I have a solid track record in working with the community
and see this next year as being a very strategic time for the 
development of our community as a whole.

  

"As OGB member I would help OpenSolaris forge forward into the future!"