From: imp@boulder.parcplace.com (Warner Losh) Subject: Re: The best way to "support Linux"! Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1993 17:12:43 GMT
I'd like to put my two cents into this discussion before it goes
non-linear and makes it into my KILL file :-)
There are many roles to play to make a system successful. Development
is one of them. There is also testing, documenting, and integration.
Testing is needed to ensure that what the developers have developed
works and plays well in more environments than the developers could
hope to test in. Documenation is needed to make sure that all the
cool and not so cool things the developers have placed into the system
will be know by enough people that they will get used. Integration is
needed to make sure that all the components that come together from
the developers are sane and that no last minute "rewrite the world"
changes don't take place.
Linux has good developers working on it. The fact that I was able to
get both linux X up and running in less than four days does say
something for the volume of work that has been poured into the system.
Linux is docuemented less well. There is a lot of information in the
FAQs that doesn't seem to be in the man pages, and there doesn't seem
to be a good way of browsing FAQs to try to find stuff out. Some man
pages are missing from the SLS release, etc. What documenation is
there is usually good.
Linux has been fairly well tested on the system that I use it on. I
have had a couple of odd crashes, but they were accessing things like
drive "B" when I don't have a drive "B" physically on my system. This
indicates to me that linux has been fairly well tested.
Integration is the area where the Linux system is the weakest. To get
the latest libc, for example, I have to grab about 10 different files
and make sure my kernel is at least patch level 5 and be very careful
when I install the new libraries, or I'll be reaching for some boot
floppies... There should be an easier way to get this to happen.
Also, there have been many messages indicating that p7 broke this or
that and you need to grab a new copy of it from here or there.
If any effort is needed in Linux that isn't already being done, I'd
have to say it is in the area of integration, and keeping track of
what versions of programs work with which kernels, etc. Also, there
needs to be better packaging of the system so that upgrades aren't
quite so painful to go through.
That said, I'm very impressed with Linux. I love using it, and am
dialed into the machine I'm posing this from an xterm running on my
linux box. Keep up the good work.
Warner
-- Warner Losh imp@boulder.parcplace.COM ParcPlace Boulder I've almost finished my brute force solution to subtlety.