A new Red Hat beta and distribution changes
| From: | Bill Nottingham <notting@redhat.com> | |
| To: | redhat-watch-list@redhat.com | |
| Subject: | Announcing a beta release of Red Hat Linux: Severn | |
| Date: | Mon, 21 Jul 2003 10:03:38 -0400 |
Thank you gentlemen. This is rumor control. Here are the facts.
As some of you know, new Red Hat Linux Beta bits crash landed
here at 1000 on the morning watch. There was one survivor.
Two dead processes, and a daemon that was hopelessly smashed
beyond repair. The survivor is called SEVERN.
It's that time again.
(Time to floss?)
(Time to make a gooky?)
No, it's time for a Red Hat Linux Beta, named SEVERN.
"I just want to say that I took a vow of stability. That also
includes betas. We all took the vow. Now let me say, that I
for one, do not appreciate Company policy allowing beta bits
to freely intermingle..."
"Cheeky bastard, right sir?"
"What brother means to say is ... We view the presence of
any outside OS, beta, as a violation of the stability, a
potential break in the spiritual unity."
We are well aware of your feelings in this matter. You will
be pleased to know that I have requested a testing team -
Hopefully, they will be here inside of a few hours and
evaluate it A.S.A.P.
As always, betas such as SEVERN are not intended for use on
production environments. Use as such could lead to your machines
being slaughtered like pigs by the dragon. Or just public laughter.
Problems with SEVERN should be reported via bugzilla, at:
http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/
What's its development status?
"It doesn't seem too horrendously in flux. Difficult at this
moment to make a specific diagnosis."
Among other things, SEVERN has:
- a new graphical boot
- GCC 3.3
- an updated 2.4.21 kernel
- updated Evolution and Mozilla
- and more!
Will it live?
"Yes, I should think so."
Look, none of us here is naive. It's in everybody's best
interests if this beta doesn't come out into production until
the testing team is through with it. And certainly not
without the proper qualification and bug reports. Right? So
we should all stick to our set routines and not get
unduly agitated. Correct? All right. Thank you gentlemen.
Speaking of unduly agitated... there's lots of rumors going on
about Red Hat Linux. We've been doing it for nearly ten years
now, and in that time, there's been various changes. From
rpp to RPM, from Red Hat Commercial Linux to Official Red Hat
Linux, from 'install' to anaconda. And now, we're making another
change.
We changed the rules. We said our Linux should be your Linux. Just as
most of the software in Red Hat Linux is developed in an open
fashion, so should Red Hat Linux itself; driven by those who
develop, test, document, and translate. To accomplish this, we're
opening up our process.
Now this is an evolution, not a revolution. The first steps will
be moving much of our development discussions and schedules
external, via mailing lists and other means, and including external
developers in the process of making technical decisions. More
will be done from there. Red Hat Linux will remain as it has been; a
freely available general purpose operating system, released on the
average every six months. For more information, see:
http://rhl.redhat.com/
For discussion of SEVERN, send mail to:
rhl-beta-list-request@redhat.com
with
subscribe
in the subject line. You can leave the body empty. Or see:
https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/rhl-beta-list/
As always, you can get SEVERN at redhat.com, specifically:
ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/beta/severn/
Or the following mirrors:
North America:
United States:
ftp://moni.msci.memphis.edu/pub/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
http://moni.msci.memphis.edu/pub/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
ftp://linux.stanford.edu/pub/mirrors/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
ftp://ftp.cse.buffalo.edu/pub/RedHat/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
ftp://mirror.eas.muohio.edu/mirrors/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
ftp://mirrors.secsup.org/pub/linux/redhat/beta/severn/
ftp://redhat.dulug.duke.edu/pub/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
ftp://mirror.hiwaay.net/redhat/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
http://mirror.hiwaay.net/redhat/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
http://www.gtlib.cc.gatech.edu/pub/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
ftp://ftp.gtlib.cc.gatech.edu/pub/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
rsync://rsync.gtlib.cc.gatech.edu/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
Canada:
ftp://less.cogeco.net/pub/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
ftp://ftp.nrc.ca/pub/systems/linux/redhat/ftp.redhat.com/linux/beta/severn/
South America:
Brazil:
http://bastion.las.ic.unicamp.br/pub/redhat/linux/beta/severn
ftp://bastion.las.ic.unicamp.br/pub/redhat/linux/beta/severn
Chile:
ftp://ftp.tecnoera.com/Linux/redhat-beta/severn/
Europe:
Austria:
ftp://gd.tuwien.ac.at/opsys/linux/redhat.com/dist/linux/beta/severn/
http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/opsys/linux/redhat.com/dist/linux/beta/severn/
rsync://gd.tuwien.ac.at/opsys/linux/redhat.com/dist/linux/beta/severn/
Czech Republic:
ftp://sunsite.mff.cuni.cz/MIRRORS/ftp.redhat.com/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
ftp://ultra.linux.cz/MIRRORS/ftp.redhat.com/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
ftp://sunsite.cnlab-switch.ch/mirror/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
ftp://ftp.linux.cz/pub/linux/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
ftp://ftp6.linux.cz/pub/linux/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
Denmark:
ftp://klid.dk/pub/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
Germany:
ftp://ftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/linux/redhat-ftp/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
http://wftp.tu-chemnitz.de/pub/linux/redhat-ftp/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
ftp://ftp.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de/pub/linux/Mirror/ftp.redhat.com/linux/beta/severn/
ftp://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/Linux/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
Ireland:
ftp://ftp.esat.net/mirrors/ftp.redhat.com/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
http://ftp.esat.net/mirrors/ftp.redhat.com/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
rsync://ftp.esat.net/mirrors/ftp.redhat.com/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
Netherlands:
ftp://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/RedHat/ftp/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
ftp://ftp.surfnet.nl/pub/os/Linux/distr/RedHat/ftp/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
ftp://alviss.et.tudelft.nl/pub/redhat/beta/severn/
Poland:
ftp://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/pub/Linux/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
rsync://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/ftp/pub/Linux/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
http://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/pub/Linux/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
Romania:
ftp://ftp.iasi.roedu.net/pub/mirrors/ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
http://ftp.iasi.roedu.net/mirrors/ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
rsync://ftp.iasi.roedu.net/ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
Turkey:
ftp://ftp.linux.org.tr/pub/redhat/beta/severn/
United Kingdom:
http://zeniiia.linux.org.uk/pub/distributions/redhat/beta/severn/
ftp://zeniiia.linux.org.uk/pub/distributions/redhat/beta/severn/
rsync://zeniiia.linux.org.uk/ftp/pub/distributions/redhat/beta/severn/
Asia/Pacific:
Australia:
http://planetmirror.com/pub/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
ftp://ftp.planetmirror.com/pub/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/redhat/linux/severn/
ftp://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/redhat/linux/severn/
Japan:
ftp://ftp.sfc.wide.ad.jp/pub/Linux/RedHat/linux/beta/severn/
Singapore:
ftp://ftp.oss.eznetsols.org/linux/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
rsync://rsync.oss.eznetsols.org/linux/redhat/linux/beta/severn/
One additional feature provided by the Linux community is the
availability of SEVERN via BitTorrent.
http://torrent.dulug.duke.edu/severn-binary-iso.torrent
http://torrent.dulug.duke.edu/severn-source-iso.torrent
RPMS for Red Hat Linux 7.3 through 9 of BitTorrent are available from:
http://torrent.dulug.duke.edu/btrpms/
Usage is simple:
btdownloadcurses.py --url http://URL.torrent
Allow incoming TCP 6881 - 6889 to join the torrent swarm.
http://torrent.dulug.duke.edu/
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Posted Jul 21, 2003 15:39 UTC (Mon)
by freeio (guest, #9622)
[Link]
There is ample reason to believe it will work. The best example of this process, of course, has been Debian. Of course Red Hat is still a for-profit company, but they seem to have realized that since the vast majority of their income comes not from the boxed sets, but rather from custom work, support, and such, that the distro itself could be freeed up, and to their benefit. What will be of interest is to see what trademark issues will show up. Red Hat has been enforcing thier trademark rights, and so this new venture will need to have a standard name which doesn't infringe, so that third parties can release it on CDROM, call it something recognizable, and not call it Red Hat.
Posted Jul 21, 2003 15:59 UTC (Mon)
by erat (guest, #21)
[Link]
Now for some speculation. Maintaining a Linux distribution costs a small fortune when done in a corporate environment where people expect to be paid. It's generally a loss leader, not bringing in enough revenue to sustain its maintenance, support, marketing, sales staff, etc. Linux folks refusing to pony up cash for CDs and/or support don't help either. As such, it's always the first thing board members and management look to cut when a company is hemmhoraging cash. Red Hat may be a healthy company. What do I know? I no longer have any inside knowledge of the company since all my sources have moved on to greener pastures. However, I've worked in a Linux company before and have seen this kind of thing happen, not just in my company but in others that we worked with, and every time it's happened the reason behind it was the same... I guess it boils down to this: if I'm right, it's put up or shut up time for Red Hat Linux users. It looks like Red Hat may be re-purposing its engineers and is expecting the free stuff to be maintained in a more free (as in beer) manner. This is not a bad thing, but those folks out there who use Red Hat without paying them dime one for any of their hard work had better consider supporting them one way or another, either by supporting their products in mail lists, buying CDs every now and then, or contributing to the distro with packaging, development, etc. It's how this whole Linux thing is supposed to work anyway, right? Just my $0.02...
Posted Jul 21, 2003 16:18 UTC (Mon)
by Frej (guest, #4165)
[Link]
Posted Jul 21, 2003 16:35 UTC (Mon)
by foo@share-foo.com (guest, #7940)
[Link]
Posted Jul 21, 2003 16:55 UTC (Mon)
by toon (guest, #511)
[Link] (2 responses)
Toon Moene.
Posted Jul 21, 2003 23:08 UTC (Mon)
by tjc (guest, #137)
[Link] (1 responses)
Posted Jul 22, 2003 8:14 UTC (Tue)
by error27 (subscriber, #8346)
[Link]
RedHat 8.0 was so much better than 7.x. X was configured by default. Everything looked nice. ... But the browser didn't work. It's a stupid detail when you compare it to everything they got right but it still made the first hour of 8.0 pretty miserable. Hopefully with more people testing the betas this kind of thing will get caught.
It would appear that Red Hat is going for a "full geek press" of sorts. OK, if the kernel can be developed out in the open, then why not apply that to the entire distro - and a popular version at that.Interesting move...
It's good to see that they're finally making this move. They have a history of developing their own stuff in-house instead of throwing their weight behind existing projects (see: the two desktop systems they've developed on their own, their own web browser, their own fork of PostgreSQL, etc.) It can only help.A new Red Hat beta and distribution changes
Mandrake already does this. But as usual (for mdk) it's hard to figure out how it works.
Currently there is a wiki and general info on 'cooker'
A new Red Hat beta and distribution changes
I wonder if this will finally mean more package diversity. It sucks that a given distro doesn't offer a choice of either apache-1.3.x or 2.x, php 4.2.x or 4.3.x etc. I know it seems like a lot to ask, but $500/per server/per year for RHN access and a garunteed life expectancy isn't chicken feed. I've noticed that SUSE offers these choices. Why not RH?
A new Red Hat beta and distribution changes
Isn't this simply Red Hat's answer to UnitedLinux ?A new Red Hat beta and distribution changes
I'd say it's more of a response to Debian's development model. UnitedLinux has become a liability to SuSE, so there's no need for Red Hat to respond to that.
A new Red Hat beta and distribution changes
Yup. It's crazy to not to develop code in public.A new Red Hat beta and distribution changes