Michael Johnson leaves Red Hat, Fedora [LWN.net]

Michael K. Johnson announced on January 23 that he is leaving Red Hat and thus will no longer be the technical lead for the Fedora project. Michael was one of the last remaining Red Hat originals, having been with the company almost since the beginning. He has had a great deal of influence over the development of Red Hat Linux, and will certainly be missed.

The new Fedora leader is Christian Gafton; he has posted an introductory message with his thoughts for Fedora in the near future.

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Michael Johnson leaves Red Hat, Fedora

Posted Jan 27, 2004 16:43 UTC (Tue) by Quazatron (guest, #4368) [Link] (2 responses)

Was I the only one who read the title as "Michael Jackson leaves Red Hat, Fedora"?

Michael Johnson leaves Red Hat, Fedora

Posted Jan 27, 2004 16:59 UTC (Tue) by elanthis (guest, #6227) [Link]

Hopefully. ;-)

Michael Jackson leaves Red Hat, Fedora

Posted Jan 27, 2004 17:52 UTC (Tue) by cpeterso (guest, #305) [Link]

me, too! :)

Michael Johnson leaves Red Hat, Fedora

Posted Jan 27, 2004 18:16 UTC (Tue) by xach (guest, #2349) [Link]

I hope mkj continues in his generous public service to the community. I remember his early contributions to GIMP-related stuff, and he was always a pleasure to encounter. His "Linux Application Development" book opened my eyes to how Unix works in general, and Linux in particular. Whatever you end up doing, mkj, good luck!

Michael Johnson leaves Red Hat, Fedora

Posted Jan 27, 2004 19:14 UTC (Tue) by TwoTimeGrime (guest, #11688) [Link] (8 responses)

I thought that Fedora was going to be a community project. Shouldn't the Fedora community elect who fills Michael's role within Fedora?

Fedora / Redhat

Posted Jan 27, 2004 19:59 UTC (Tue) by ccyoung (guest, #16340) [Link] (6 responses)

It's my understanding that RH is sponsering Fedora. On one hand they use it to test and filter packages before entering their main distro. On the other hand they give Fedora to the community (many mirror sites, more packages, security upgrades - essentially a superset of RH9 without the $60/yr). Right now I think it's a pretty good deal. If RH becomes weird or restrictive, can always move to Debian.

What I would really like would be a distro where you specify your target computer and needs in excruciating detail in a PHP form and have the kernel, modules, and apps gen'd for you. RH kernel is too big and too general; Debian binaries too limited; Gentoo too long and too difficult - with security patches, this is something to which I would quite happily subscribe. Maybe IBM can lend Debian or OpenDesktop some major iron...

Fedora / Redhat

Posted Jan 27, 2004 21:01 UTC (Tue) by TwoTimeGrime (guest, #11688) [Link] (5 responses)

How would that be different from recompiling the RH kernel and not installing the apps that you don't need? I agree that the Red hat kernel is big but it's trying to be a "one size fits all" kernel. The kernel-source package has the config files so that you can rebuild the kernel with or without any modules that you need.

Fedora / Redhat

Posted Jan 27, 2004 23:46 UTC (Tue) by proski (guest, #104) [Link] (1 responses)

Those who don't use the official kernel won't get security updates for it.

Fedora / Redhat

Posted Jan 28, 2004 6:58 UTC (Wed) by TwoTimeGrime (guest, #11688) [Link]

> Those who don't use the official kernel won't get security updates for it.

What official kernel? Red Hat's? Every time Red Hat releases a new kernel RPM they also release a kernel-source RPM. For example on Fedora Core 1 there is:

kernel-2.4.22-1.2115.nptl.i686.rpm
kernel-source-2.4.22-1.2115.nptl.i386.rpm

If you install the second RPM it will put Red Hat's kernel with patches into /usr/src/linux-2.4 along with a handful of .config files for building the kernel in /usr/src/linux-2.4/configs. When new security patches come out you can install the new kernel-source RPM, copy over your .config file and then recompile the kernel.

I have a dream

Posted Jan 28, 2004 3:26 UTC (Wed) by ccyoung (guest, #16340) [Link] (2 responses)

That's one.

Plus:
- RH packages are huge, i386, and optionless
- re-compiling a kernel on RH:
= no .config (use make oldkernel?)
= make modules -> an enormous explosion
- then remember everything for security upgrades

But moreover I dream about:
- a super-beefed up xconfig for all phases of the system
- that would remember my settings
- what would build the kernel, modules, apps
- that would apply the security patches correctly
- that wouldn't take 24 hours for the first install
- that would use collective expertise in configuration and update

I have a dream

Posted Jan 28, 2004 6:59 UTC (Wed) by TwoTimeGrime (guest, #11688) [Link]

> - RH packages are huge, i386, and optionless

I can't disagree with that.

> - re-compiling a kernel on RH:
> = no .config (use make oldkernel?)

Install the kernel-source RPM from Red Hat and then get their .configs from /usr/src/linux-2.4/configs.

> = make modules -> an enormous explosion

Don't use modules then.

> But moreover I dream about:
[snip]

Short of the beefed up xconfig and the compiling of the kernel and modules, Debian seems to come really close to that. I'm just venturing into Debian from Red Hat and it's really well thought out and maintained.

I have a dream

Posted Jan 28, 2004 19:20 UTC (Wed) by vonbrand (guest, #4458) [Link]

Plus:

- RH packages are huge, i386, and optionless

Strange... I must be imagining the ix86 (4 <= x <= 6), Athlon packages in RH then. Just for the record: Compiling most stuff for non i386 just gives larger and in many cases slower programs.

- re-compiling a kernel on RH:

= no .config (use make oldkernel?)

Yes, they are under configs/

= make modules -> an enormous explosion

The distribution kernels have modules for everythingh under the sun. Edit your configuration to get rid of what you don't want. Wait... this is really Linus' fault! He let too much drivers and options creep into the kernel!!

- then remember everything for security upgrades

Yep, that is one of the unglamorous jobs that everybody should be grateful the distribution does for them.

About your other dreams:

But moreover I dream about:

- a super-beefed up xconfig for all phases of the system

- that would remember my settings

- what would build the kernel, modules, apps

- that would apply the security patches correctly

- that wouldn't take 24 hours for the first install

- that would use collective expertise in configuration and update

What you are asking for is an automated system that has enough brains (and knows how to use them to filter many conflicting sources of information) to be considered a competent Linux admin. Good luck!

Michael Johnson leaves Red Hat, Fedora

Posted Jan 28, 2004 10:29 UTC (Wed) by angdraug (subscriber, #7487) [Link]

Not for long, see this LWN article.