Linux Knowledge Base Org. Announces Formation of the
OODS Group
Jun 1st, 07:26 UTC
The Linux Knowledge Base Org. in a major shift in
strategy announces the formation of the Open Object
Directory Services Group which will power the next
generation Linux Knowledge Base Org.
web site.
The Linux Knowledge Base Org. in a major shift in
strategy announces the formation of the Open Object
Directory Services Group which will power the next
generation Linux Knowledge Base Org.
web site.
Linux Knowledge Base Org. Announces Formation of the OODS Group
The past few months have brought the Linux Knowledge Base Org. to a cross road. Countless hours of coding, arguing, and designing have left us wanting more. Much more. On one hand, we have the labors of over two years which each of us have put our heart and soul in. Some of us have made some significant sacrifices at work and in our personal life to make the project succeed. On the other hand, we have the painful realization that some of the choices we've made in the past are a poor fit for the goals we have today. Specifically, we've pushed the PHP language far beyond what the authors of it had ever intended. We've taken it beyond a web scripting language to a hard core processing engine- a processing engine that takes over five seconds to execute per page on a P3 733Mhz. Some of it could be resolved by re-designing a great deal of code; some can only be solved by using another language.
There's also the realization that we want something bigger and better than just a web site with Linux documentation in it. We want to provide a real API to allow software authors direct access to the content. We want to build a system that is useful to a wider audience. We want to provide the ultimate in flexibility, not just for the users, but the maintainers and developers as well. We wanted to do something that was truly an open source project, not just a web site that publishes its code when it is convenient.
Which brings us to right now. We've had to make a lot of hard choices in the past, but this one is by far the hardest. After reaching the conclusion that the current design will not scale to meet our needs, we find ourselves with two choices:
- Try to work around the issues, make a number of sacrifices, and code a lot of hacks. This would give us a functionally working site in about two months, but be severely limited in terms of the future. It would be for all intents and purposes a dead-end and require us to start over, but at least we'd have a working site while we rewrote the back-end.
- Cut our losses now, start over, and release the current source code of the site under the GPL as-is.
We considered the impacts to the developers (both as a group and individuals), the community, and our sponsors. After doing so, we unanimously decided to cut our losses now rather than put a great deal of effort in a code base which has already become obsolete.
With this decision, a dramatic shift in the Linux Knowledge Base Project is in process. As of now, all development has stopped on the current site in order that we can design and document our plan for the future. The biggest change is the formation of the Open Object Directory Services (OODS) Group. OODS will be an open API using CORBA for a platform independent means of storing, retrieving, and managing information over the Internet. Initially, most of our efforts will be focused on making the OODS concept a reality. After basic functionality has been developed, we will work to incorporate the OODS within the LinuxKB's web site. We hope that other individuals and groups interested in documentation management for free software and open source will contribute to OODS.
Those interested in obtaining the PHP and Perl code which compromises up the bulk of the LinuxKB, as well as the database schema (including sample data) and developer workspace image (which provides "properly" installed copies of Apache, PHP, mod_perl, Ht://Dig, and MySQL) should visit http://www.linuxkb.org/source/.
Finally, we would like to thank everyone who has been patient with our group so far. Our project has taken a lot longer than we had ever intended. The fact that we have been blessed with such supportive and patient sponsors who allow us to manage the project without interference has given us the freedom to take risks like this. Specifically, we would like to thank:
- NaviSite who has graciously provided us trouble-free co-location services.
- VA Linux Systems our first sponsor; donated our database server.
- The Networks who donated our web server.
- Mandrake who paid our way to Linux World NY so that we could generate interest in our project with the community.
- Roger Dingledine and Pete St. Onge of Simple End User Linux who have provided us a great deal of advice and support.
Sincerely,
Jason Pincin
Aaron Turner
Daniel Markle
Marc Britten
and the other members of the Linux Knowledge Base Organization
(Submitted by Aaron Turner of Linux Knowledge Base Org.)
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