Re: tlug: The Myth of Open Source Security

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

>>>>> "wile y" == Christopher Sekiya <wileyc@example.com> writes:

    wile y> Like it or not, davem is the portmaster for the sparc
    wile y> port.  When RedHat bought davem, RedHat bought the sparc
    wile y> port (although I'm sure that he'd dispute that; the
    wile y> direction that the sparc port has taken tells a different
    wile y> story).

[...]

    wile y> Is this good for linux users?  Maybe.  If the user in
    wile y> question has late-model sparc hardwrae.  Otherwise, no --
    wile y> because RH pays davem to work on tier one products
    wile y> ... support for the older sparc machines suffers thereby.

True, as I've noticed personally.  The question is, is it a better use
of davem's time to support Sparc ELCs like the one I'd like to get
more use out of, or to support the tier 1 machines so that maybe
somebody can escape the evil of Solaris?  There's only one davem.
Viable it may be, but how many sun4c users are out there and what are
they doing with their machines that requires tier 1 support?

    wile y> Right, that's okay.  I don't see very much similarity
    wile y> between the bankrolling of the i18n project and the
    wile y> bankrolling of the sparc linux port.

1. money
2. the people supplying the money want things done their way

I don't agree with everything Li18nux is planning to promulgate as
standards, not by a long shot.  But as long as it _is_ a standard (and
not something to be embraced, extended, folded, spindled, and
mutilated), it beats the alternative.  It's a little bit harder to
make sour fruit juice out of your particular yellow citrus, I admit,
but I'm sure some people are ecstatic that davem is spending lots of
time on Ultrasparcs.

Why does your agony count for more than their ecstasy?  I'm not saying
it doesn't:

    >> _you_ could spend a little more time on advocacy.  Not
    >> everybody can see what you see, you know.

    wile y> Until the masses realize that the coolness of linux is
    wile y> actually the coolness of UNIX, I fear that my words will
    wile y> be wasted.

Surely you realize _I_ understand that point.  But I don't understand
why aging Sparc hardware deserves higher priority than it is getting.
Sometimes you need to educate your friends, too.

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