[Beowulf] SGI to offer Windows on clusters

[Douglas Eadline]

My understanding is that FC7 will include distro building tools
for both custom rolls and live CD/DVD's. So I think
you will start to see a lot of customized FC rolls that
contain a subset of packages for a specific "domain".
(I have been working on such integrated suite of RPMs
for FC6)

Of course, as Jeff Layton has stated, the ISV's
have difficulty with the fast pace of Fedora, but
adroit open source end-users seem to like the
latest and greatest.

I don't see and easy way to reconcile this situation.
Most production shops and data centers need stability,
while those who want to use the latest MB/CPU combination
have difficulties with the "long haul" distributions.

 --
 Doug


> On Sun, 15 Apr 2007, Ed Hill wrote:
>
>> Help [in the form of new packagers, new packages, package reviews, bug
>> reports, etc...] is always welcome.  Even as the list of Fedora packages
>> grows it is still remarkably small compared to the universe of freely
>> re-distributable (and thus eligible) software.
>
> Hey Ed,
>
> Much as I like FC 6 -- by far the best linux release I've ever used,
> huge, almost totally automagical and transparent -- I've been fairly
> brusquely corrected on thinking otherwise on a number of occasions, so
> now I tend to be pretty cautious.  FC 6 has something like 6500 packages
> visible to yum on my system, but from what I understand there are
> something like 20,000 accessible from Debian these days.
>
> The impressive thing is the number of scientific and technical packages
> that are making it in.  I truly think that inside a year, perhaps two
> (one or two more FC releases) FC will be a beowulf-in-a-box on the one
> hand, and a "scientific linux" on the other, in the sense that all the
> important packages required to support either one will be there.  It's
> already pretty close.
>
> I'm not certain that I "like" the idea of fully integrating extras into
> the main core, though.  The problem with FC+extras+updates even now is
> that 6500 packages is a bit difficult to get a human brain around,
> especially when they are basically unsorted and in only two or three
> enormous repos.  Yum supports the notion of segmenting into multiple
> repos, and I honestly think that it would be a good idea to take
> advantage of this and have e.g. a separate "fedora games" repo, a
> "fedora scientific" repo, a "fedora office" repo and so on.  Flat is
> good for certain machine driven automatic things -- flat is not so good
> for human cognitive things.
>
> That's why department stores are a wee bit easier to shop than junkyards
> or flea markets, why libraries or new bookstores are easier to shop than
> book bin used stores -- you know where to look for something. USING
> packages for non-automated system configuration is all about shopping.
> Yes, one can "in principle" to searches and limited sorting using yum or
> toplevel tools, but I haven't found it to be as effective as all that.
>
> At 20Kpkgs, Debian has gotten to the point where friends of mine who are
> Debian users no longer bother to even try to figure out what is in it.
> They install the minimum, and rely on word of mouth or blind luck to
> clue them in on really nice packages of use to them in that vast list.
> I sympathize.  It took my two or three days to just read through the
> package descriptions for "everything" in FC6 when I upgraded (and they
> thought I was crazy for doing that much).  With Debian it would take
> over a week.
>
> Categorical segmentation isn't a bad idea to TRY to keep things
> manageable here.  Whether it occurs at the repo level or elsewhere, a
> hierarchy of sorts is desireable.
>
>      rgb
>
>>
>> Ed
>>
>>
>
> --
> Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
> Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
> Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
> Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb at phy.duke.edu
>
>
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--
Doug