SEUL: Re: Some unanswered questions about SEUL (answered, I hope :-)

[Erik Walthinsen <omega@omegacs.net>]

> 1) What will be the license?  I do not remember any clear statements
> about GPL.

The plan is to stay GPL'd as much as possible.  Some packages have licenses 
identical in spirit, so we may not be truly 100% GPL'd, but effectively so.


> 2) What will be the goals? 
>   A distribution made from the grounds up or one taking the best in
> each existant distribution and working from there to go farther?  The
> former approach leads to much wheel reinvention.  In particular I do
> not see why to build a new package manager when there are two good
> ones (RPM and DPKG) with source code available.

The short answer (there's a really long one, too) is that we will be starting 
with an existing distribution (I'm leaning towards RedHat), making new 
packages and modifications to existing ones as necessary.  Given the 
structure of the RPM build environment, and the CVS repository we're using, 
there is little difference between importing all packages and importing just 
the ones we change, other than space.  Given that, it may be that we simply 
put the packages on our not-yet-existant FTP site, and let others do the 
actual distribution.


> 3) Is this project for the sake of making a new distribution or for
> the good of Linux?
>   In the later case someone in SEUL should have contacts with other
> distributions when there is an idea we think would be useful to them.

Both, really.  The plan I have is to work closely with other groups, like the 
Mnemonic browser project, window manager groups, applications (spreadsheets, 
word processors, etc.) and so on.  These relationships will do two things:
1) help the project in question to gain manpower and popular support, and
2) provide us with a channel to exert the necessary (hopefully minimal)
control over the direction of the project in order for it to fit into the
SEUL scheme of things.

Take the case of RedHat.  Since we'll likely be basing our entire 
distribution on theirs, we will want to keep in close contact with them.  If 
they make changes (i.e. release of 5.0 on Dec 1!), we'll want to be aware of 
them so we can update our own software.  It goes the other way, as changes we 
make will be GPL'd and freely available to RedHat for incorporation into
their distribution.

One possibility is that RedHat and SEUL may over time become so similar as to
be considered basically identical.  Another would be RedHat taking SEUL under
its wing and handling distribution, support, etc., for it, by making it a
companion product to the "classic" RedHat distrib.  The classic distrib for
hackers, the SEUL distrib for the "masses".


> 4) Project leaders are supposed to coordinate groups.  I do not see
> any dicussion going on and I have not seen any message stating what
> will be done in any particular area.

That has been the major problem so far.  Very little work has even been 
discussed yet.  That will change, hopefully within a few weeks.  I have been 
spending the last several weeks working on the developer services (CVS, 
lists, bug tracking, etc.) and will be doing so for at least the next two.  
Two weeks from now I have finals week, with only one serious final (calculus),
and after that I'll be free from school until early January.

During that Christmas break I will be working on designs and ideas, and
posting them to seul-project and/or seul-dev-* as appropriate.  I will
attempt to gather the existing leaders and get them to do the same as time 
permits.  Given this is the Christmas holiday, I can't promise anything from 
other leaders (given their [unknown to me] schedules), but I can promise that 
I will be actively working on the project.


For those interested in some initial documentation on the developer services, 
tune your browser to http://cvs-test.seul.org/about/.  It will be growing in 
size and in link count as I finish up the core services and document them.


TTYL,
    Omega

      Erik Walthinsen - SEUL Project infrastructure/system architecture
        __
       /  \           omega@sequent.com         Work: (503)578-5314
      |    | M E G A  omega@omegacs.net         Home: (503)281-4281
      _\  /_          psu12113@odin.cc.pdx.edu  Majoring in CS

       SEUL: Simple End-User Linux - creating a Linux distribution
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