[OmniOS-discuss] Questions about - End the uncertainty -

[Robert Treat]

On Wed, Jul 5, 2017 at 10:05 AM, Guenther Alka <alka at hfg-gmuend.de> wrote:
> about OmniOS and the silence for weeks
>
> For my own future, I have already decided to switch back to OpenIndiana, the
> community based sister project of OmniOS. But like many users, I have yet
> OmniOS installations running perfectly. For them, it is essential to ask
> about the future for the next months or year and needed next steps (can wait
> some time or switch as soon as possible).
>
>
> @OmniTi
> The end of OmniOS at OmniTi seems final.
>

People see what they want to see. We still have a lot of OmniOS
running at OmniTI, that is not expected to change anytime soon.

> - How long will the website and the repo remain online?
>

Indefinitely.

The majority of repos on github are publicly available, and probably
won't ever be taken down. At some point we will need to reconfigure
our internal processes to move towards a community repo rather than
the one current housed under omniti-labs (Sadly, we never were able to
secure OmniOS as a project from github, even with trademark rights,
but ce la vie) but for now we are posting updates there when we can.

As for the wiki, what we would like to see is the wiki recreated in a
github project; right now it runs on a set of wiki software that is
essentially closed source and we cannot open it, so a scrape/rebuild
of the existing wiki seems to be the best option. I think the software
at https://github.com/HeinrichHartmann/trac2md can go towards making
that happen, but haven't seen anyone take that to completion.

> - Is there an option to fix serious bugs or problems in OmniOS @OmniTi for
> a limited time like 1 year or at least end of the year?
>

We will fix issues for ourselves and our customers as long as needed.
We're happy to look at pull requests as well, but eventually that
effort should move toward a community managed repo.

> - Are you willing to transfer the website/name either to a new OmniOS
> community project (I cannot see this as an option regarding the silence
> about) or to the OpenIndiana community to use it as a name for a possible
> stable like OpenIndiana Hipster=dev and OpenIndiana OmniOS as a stable
> subset? (if OI is willing to go that route but the request or offer must
> come from OmniTi or OmniOS people).
>
> OmniOS has a very strong reputation regarding production quality and
> stability, so such a step would help both if OpenIndiana and OmniOS would
> cooperate in a common project. Seems a pity if the name would die or remain
> as a name for a failed project.

We have stated this publicly before, but happy to say it again. We are
willing to transfer "everything" (omnios.org domain, trademark rights,
etc...) once a suitable group for stewardship emerges.

My personal feeling is that people have gotten caught up in the drama
of this far more than focusing on the work needed to move things
forward. Right now the primary focus of those who want to see OmniOS
move forward is setting up a new development process and identifying
how that will work and who the people with appropriate commit bits
will be. That should be coupled with a conversion of the wiki so that
we have a way to push forward changes / releases. This can all be
accomplished using github as the community provider for
resources/hosting as a first step. After that individual pieces like a
new domain, new websites, moving mailing lists, twitter accounts and
such, can be taken on as individual projects. The big upside here is
that almost all of this process can be (and probably should be) lifted
from the existing OmniOS project, with regard to scope, direction,
versioning, etc... In the meantime, talk of project merges and such is
mostly a distraction IMHO.

>
>
> @OmniOS developers (current or former - you have done a very good job!)
>
> - Is there an option to fix serious bugs or problems in OmniOS for a limited
> time like 1 year or at least end of the year? This would help until a
> sucessor (less likely OmniOS 151024, maybe next OpenIndiana snap with a
> stable subset) is available. LX would then remain an OmniOS option in the
> meantime (I would not dare to ask about an upstream).
>

Personally, I think the successor is going to151024 built out of the
CE repo. A good test would be to see if that can be done in September,
address just the goal of building a new release from community driven
inputs, and solving the few tricky issues that come up with that
(package signing comes to mind).


Robert Treat
https://omniti.com