[CentOS-devel] Project proposal: CentAS

Sun Apr 6 00:32:59 UTC 2008
Steven Stallion <stallions at ociweb.com>

Daniel de Kok wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 5, 2008 at 6:03 PM, Steven Stallion <stallions at ociweb.com> wrote:
>>  With regard to distributing a JVM, it is out of scope (see above).
> 
> Not fully, since we can not distribute JVMs with e.g. Sun's
> indemnification clause. If this is to be a CentOS project, I think it
> should be runnable with CentOS plus a JDK that we can distribute. As
> far as I am aware, the only Sun-heritage JDK that we can distribute
> are the GPL'ed OpenJDK bits. Does JBoss work well with this JDK?

I think there may be a misunderstanding of how JBoss is packaged and 
shipped. There is no JVM distributed along with JBoss; CentAS would be 
treated precisely the same. Again, it is designed to run on a number of 
different JVM's which of course vary for each deployment platform.

> We require this for all CentOS-hosted projects and SIGs. CentOS is a
> long-term project, and having a development team member on a
> subproject will guarantee some continuity. Apart from that, some
> decisions (e.g. some policy decisions) may need to be delegated to the
> development team.

Makse sense; thanks for the explanation.

> May I ask a more explicit question: what advantages will a whitelabel
> JBoss stack give to CentOS over RHWAS, taking the additional
> maintenance "costs" into account? Additionally, how will continuity be
> guaranteed for existing users if Object Computing loses interest in
> maintaining this?

As far as the advantages go, the a whitelabel JBoss allows for modified 
redistributions of JBoss; currently this is not possible due to Red Hat 
Trademark Guidelines. There are a number of projects/companies out there 
which rely on JBoss, and in some cases require re-distributing JBoss 
alongside their project.

I certainly understand the concern with respect to project continuity. 
This is a long term project for OCI; there is quite a bit of money 
invested into this. OCI has been providing for similar projects (TAO, 
JacORB) for over 10 years now; the same longevity is expected for JBoss 
related projects.

> Not to burn down your project proposal ;), but I think these are
> important questions to answer beforehand.

Absolutely! I appreciate the feedback.

> 
> -- Daniel
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-- 
Steven Stallion
Senior Software Engineer
Object Computing, Inc.
http://www.ociweb.com