[cobalt-developers] SRPMS, Sun, and Licensing

["John E. Martin" <jem@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> For what it's worth, a contact of mine still at Sun has been asking
> why the FTP server isn't being kept 'up to date' with PKG releases.
> No answers yet.  I think that there's just nobody left who 'owns' the
> process, and getting someone else to do it isn't as simple now as it
> was in the 'Cobalt Networks' days.

I'm generally a lurker around the list, but wanted to chime in here and say
that I know a few people that worked for Cobalt long before it was swallowed
by Sun. From what I've been able to gather from them, they've been
completely displaced to other divisions within Sun. (One of them even stands
the possibilty of being relocated out of the Bay Area)

These were people who were part of everyday support & development for Cobalt
as recently as October.

I'm guessing we're not likely to any support for PKGs, RPMs, or SRPMs
anytime soon and the long term glance seems to indicate that's all from Sun.

I've seen a few bits of dicussion going around about who could possibly pick
up the support to keep RAQs going on. While I don't use RAQs myself, and
only consult them for clients that have them, I've actually done several
RedHat build releases for various companies I've worked for, so I've got a
solid understanding of building a distribution for mass release. I'd be more
than willing to donate some time with whomever spearheads this major task
and help out however I can.

Maybe this has been discussed and I've missed it, but is anyone aware of the
copyright/trademark/licensing issues in using the Cobalt web interface? If
someone were to continue supporting OS restore CDs, is there a problem using
the original Cobalt web packages?

Any how, my .02 cents and offering. =)


Peace,
-John E. Martin
-The Unix Nexus