Mr. Herrold,

Please understand that it is with no pleasure accorded to me that I must go and correct the some several assertions you have proffered within your commentary, as they are most certainly anomalous in nature.

I think you might be well served to realize that most people have the expectation that no matter how slowly a project might progress, the status does change from time to time. And in the absence of a weekly or monthly status report on its progression, it is quite reasonable to proffer a request for pronouncement of the project's status. My queries were not specific to the S/390 apportionment of the 5.4 distribution from CentOS, but part of a greater overarching query regarding 5.4 more generally.

Indeed, showing interest in the direction a particular distribution is heading, is actually contributing. It might not be writing code, but having the discussion about the needs of the community and the sorts of platforms that said community members might otherwise search for support on, is a contribution of intellectual value in terms distinctly not uncertain.

Moreover, your presumption regarding my standing to represent the US Navy specifically concerning any interest in a S/390 distribution is entirely erroneous, but I appreciate you think highly enough of me that the Navy would leave that to me. However, I am sorry that you were so easily confused by the fact that my being a sailor in the Navy meant that I might be representing the Navy needing this distribution, as I do not represent the interests of the Navy regarding my comments. In fact, notwithstanding the fact that I never said the Navy had any desire for a S/390 variant of CentOS, what maybe far more likely is that I have a P/390 and am interested to see it come to fruition for the purposes of my personal mainframe hardware.

Lastly, it instructive that many years ago I spent hours on the phones with folks from RedHat, back when they sold more books than Linux CDs, trying report bugs and explain where I thought the code could be improved. However, just to show you my heart is in the right place, once a 5.x variant is at least in beta for the S/390 platform (from CentOS), I shall certainly be happy to contribute by beta testing it and turning in bug reports. I await the project's advancement to said milestone, such that I can begin contributing sir.

Now personally, I have my doubts as to a FOSS Fairy, but, just in case, I placed a CD with CentOS 3.9 for S/390 under my pillow! :)

I appreciate your taking the time to review my reply comments, and look forward to discussing the needs of the greater CentOS community in more detail with you as the project moves forward.

Have a wonderful and blessed day sir.

Very Respectfully Submitted,

Stuart B. Tener

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'IT2 Stuart Blake Tener, USNR':

You have asked this how many times without contributing to advancing such an effort, now?

If the Navy wants it, step and fund a run at it. If you do, put your shoulder to the wheel. I described my effort on an IBM provided build instance the last time this question was asked [with published build sources, and result packages], and the time before that as well, and I am sure it is in the archives

Stuff is not just magically delivered by the FOSS fairy

-- Russ herrold