Dennis Clarke
2007-Mar-10 02:19 UTC
[dtrace-discuss] [Fwd: Re: Questions for OGB Candidates from DTrace]
It seems this message was flatly rejected back when I had sent it. I guess I
was so busy at the time that I missed the clear sound fo a door slamming in
my face. Now that I have knocked politely at the dtrace-discuss door I may
finally slip this into the inbox.
Dennis
---------------------------- Rejection Message -----------------------------
Subject: Re: Questions for OGB Candidates from DTrace
From: dtrace-discuss-owner at opensolaris.org
Date: Thu, March 8, 2007 13:44
To: dclarke at blastwave.org
Priority: Normal
You are not allowed to post to this mailing list, and your message has
been automatically rejected. If you think that your messages are
being rejected in error, contact the mailing list owner at
dtrace-discuss-owner at opensolaris.org.
----------------------------- Original Message -----------------------------
Subject: Re: Questions for OGB Candidates from DTrace
From: "Dennis Clarke" <dclarke at blastwave.org>
Date: Thu, March 8, 2007 13:44
To: "Bryan Cantrill" <bmc at eng.sun.com>
Cc: board-candidates-2007 at opensolaris.org
dtrace-discuss at opensolaris.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> OGB Candidates,
Hello from Dennis Clarke .
> We in the DTrace Community have a couple of specific questions and
> concerns that will affect how our Core Contributors vote in the upcoming
> OGB elections. To see where you stand on the issues that are important
> to us, we would like you to answer the following questions before
> campaigning ends on Sunday night.
That seems fine.
> Please cc: dtrace-discuss at opensolaris.org
> on your answers, and thanks in advance for helping us make an informed
> decision!
My pleasure and I will provide what answers that I can. These are my
best answers off the top of my head which is to say .. I am not off
researching anything.
>
> - Bryan
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Bryan Cantrill, Solaris Kernel Development. http://blogs.sun.com/bmc
>
>
> Licensing Questions:
>
> - DTrace is one of only a small handful of OpenSolaris technologies that
> has actually been incorporated into other operating systems. Thus,
> your position on dual-licensing is very important to us; what is your
> position on dual-licensing in general?
The CDDL is a perfectly valid license and it was not formed lightly.
I value it and respect it for what it is. I feel that a dual license
strategy will not make life any better in either the short term or
the long term regardless of the noises made in some Linux projects.
I have not seen future revisions of the GPL so therefore I would not
even comment on them. They do not exist. When they do exist I would
wait until I see how the rest of the world deals with them first.
Therefore you may know that I am a single license guy as far as the
OpenSolaris project is concerned.
> - Do you agree with the conclusions and decrees of CAB/OGB Position
> Paper # 20070207?
I am in support of those conclusions. I think that one will find
that the value of our own solidarity with our own license is of
far greater importance to me than simply playing marketing games.
> - The OGB is responsible for the representation of OpenSolaris to
> third parties. If a third party were to inquire about incorporating
> DTrace into a GPL''d Program, what would be your response or
position?
That DTrace is currently under the CDDL license. Please read it
carefully. Thank you.
> Constitutional Questions:
>
> - DTrace is currently a Community Group, but some could argue that it would
> make more sense for DTrace to be a Project in (say) the Observability
> Community Group. In your mind, what is (or should be) the difference
> between a Community Group and a Project -- and where should DTrace fall?
DTrace is a specific technology. An all encompassing technology that
supercedes Zones ( N1 Grid Containers ) in terms of significance.
DTrace should be a project.
The Observability Community Group would use DTrace. Not the other
way around. It seems clear to me that the tail does not wag the
dog.
A Project to me is a substantive object or product. It is real in
that it may be implemented. A community is a group of people that
may work on a project or projects.
> - The Draft Constitution says next-to-nothing about where the authority
> lies to make or accept changes to OpenSolaris -- only that Projects
> operate at the behest of Community Groups, and that Community Groups
> can be "terminated" by the OGB. In your opinion, where does or
should
> this authority lie?
It is the role of a given community to determine if they should exist
or not. Should an external group of people make such a determination?
I think not.
Unless, of course, the commnity group works to the detriment of the
whole of OpenSolaris. However I can not encompass every possible
wild case because we are people, not machines.
> And do you believe that the Constitution should
> or should not make this explicit?
Within reason. Yes.
> Finally, under what grounds do you
> believe that a Community Group should be "terminated"?
See above.
> - The Draft Constitution says that Community Groups (and in particular,
> the Community Groups'' Facilitators) are responsible for
"communicating
> the Community Group''s status to the OGB"; what does this
mean to you?
Simply that someone check in from time to time to say "hello, we
are here and doing this and this or simply talking or doing nothing
at the moment."
Its a good way to poll a given community to check if they still exist.
> - According to the Draft Constitution, "nominations to the office of
> Facilitator shall be made by the Core Contributors of the Community
> Group, but the OGB shall not be limited in their appointment to those
> nominated." Under what conditions do you believe that the selection
of
> a Facilitator would or could fall outside of the nominations made by
> a Community Group''s Core Contributors?
Wow .. thats a toughie.
Sorry .. let me actually think about that and I''ll get back to you.
> - According to the Draft Constitution, "non-public discussion related
to
> the Community Group, such as in-person meetings or private communication,
> shall not be considered part of the Community Group activities unless or
> until a record of such discussion is made available via the normal
meeting
> mechanism." In your opinion, in the context of a Community Group
like
> DTrace -- where a majority of the Core Contributors spend eight to ten
> hours together every work day -- what does this mean?
It means that you work together. I don''t need to know when you go
for
coffee or what you discuss at the water cooler.
If you have something substantive to say then please put it on the
record.
> Specifically, what
> does it mean to be (or not to be) "considered part of the Community
> Group activities"?
Join the mailling list and "listen" in. Participate in some way
even
if you just ask the silly questions like "what is this?" or
"I don''t
understand but my code change looks odd what do you think" or even
a possible "here are the diffs to the next rev that we are pushing
out through the gate."
Participate.
This allows people to join easily and to become members.
> And in your opinion, what role does the OGB have in
> auditing a Community Group''s activities?
Not a whole lot. A community audits itself and has its own leaders.
> Potpourri:
>
> - Historically, binary compatibility has been very important to Solaris,
> having been viewed as a constraint on the evolution of technology.
> However, some believe that OpenSolaris should not have such constraints,
> and should be free to disregard binary compatibility. What is your
> opinion?
Solaris is not OpenSolaris. Solaris is a commercial distribution
made by Sun Microsystems Inc. Sun Microsystems Inc makes its own
decisions.
Should SchilliX or BeleniX or marTux do something different then
by all means. Let them. This is Open Source.
Nexenta has the GNU OpenSolaris hybrid going. Is that a distribution?
Is it the same as Solaris? I think not.
> - If a third-party were to use and modify DTrace in a non-CDDL''d
system,
> whose responsibility is it to assure that those modifications are
> made public? To put it bluntly: is enforcing the CDDL an OGB issue?
A damn good legal question. I am not a lawyer. However my gut tells
me that we would need to issue a demand statement to this third party
and clearly show that the CDDL has both weight and force. A document
that exerts no force has no meaning.
> - Do you have an opinion on the patentability of software?
Yes.
If I write it and I want to patent it then fine. Same goes for any
commercial institution. I may also choose to open source software.
> In particular,
> what is the role of the OGB -- if any -- if Sun were to initiate legal
> proceedings to protect a part of its software patent portfolio that
> is represented in OpenSolaris?
Ah .. now that would be a violation now wouldn''t it?
You are suggesting that some open source code under the CDDL and in
the OpenSolaris world would be pulled back behind the curtain.
At this point the CDDL would apply also now wouldn''t it?
> - When you give public presentations, do you run OpenSolaris on your
laptop?
I am typing this on an OpenSolaris based machine.
> Have you ever given a public demonstration of OpenSolaris technology?
I don''t do much of that anymore. I certianly do make a lot of
noise
about it in other peoples offices and I answer questions about my
black T-shirts.
I have done large presentations about Lotus technology both at trade
shows and in corporations. Sometimes to a room of 600 people.
Great fun.
> - And an extra credit question: Have you ever used DTrace? When did you
> most recently use it, and why? The answers "just now" and
"to answer
> this question" will be awarded no points. ;)
Ever : Yes. Pretty early actually.
I attended a course on DTrace presented by Angelo Rajadurai back in
2005.
http://www.blastwave.org/dclarke/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=91
Thats my old blog that was plagued by spam. Sorry.
I have the complete DTrace manual printed out and in a massive binder
here at my feet. No .. I do not understand all of it. Just some of
it.
When used? Gee .. last week ? Or was that Monday this week? They
blur together.
Does any of this help ?
Dennis Clarke dclarke at blastwave.org
Director Blastwave.org http://www.blastwave.org
----------------------------------------------------
Further Info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blastwave