On Tue, 12 Jan 2016 04:27:06 PM Piotr Robert Konopelko wrote:
> We're already publishing own packages repository
> (https://moosefs.com/download/ubuntudebian.html
> <https://moosefs.com/download/ubuntudebian.html>). We would like to make
> MooseFS available directly in Debian! :)
In November 2014 when I was working on introducing LizardFS (a fork of
MooseFS) to Debian, there were no publicly available source code for MooseFS
-- no tarballs or source code repository. Later it became possible to request
MooseFS sources by filling web form and hoping that sources will be sent over
email. Even though now MooseFS sources can be freely downloaded there are no
public bug tracker and no public VCS. Lack of VCS means one can not isolate
(and backport) fixes without great difficulties.
Moreover only crippled "community edition" of MooseFS is free software as
MooseFS developers apparently focused on proprietary "PRO" edition.
Debian already have MooseFS' fork -- LizardFS. To my knowledge at the moment
MooseFS do not offer noticeable advantages over LizardFS while the latter
seems to have slightly more features.
For quite a while LizardFS is developed with community using public VCS and
bug tracker (GitHub) as well as Gerrit code review system and continuous
integration system. LizardFS have more development transparency than MooseFS
ever had.
I believe that poor governance of MooseFS motivated forking and it appears
that MooseFS developers still did not learn their lesson.
***
Based on the above I recommend to refrain from introducing MooseFS to Debian.
***
Please note that IMHO MooseFS versus LizardFS situation have many
similarities with MySQL vs. MariaDB situation where poor Oracle's governance
and focus on proprietary addons discourage community from working with them.
(MySQL is not as bad as MooseFS because MySQL have public bug tracker).
As I object to introduction of MooseFS to Debian I would object to
introduction of MySQL if MariaDB were already available.
Having both is a burden and non-negligible overhead.
With all due respect to MooseFS's former innovations and legacy I think for
now it would be best to refrain from debianising MooseFS and re-evaluate
situation in the future if there will be any development.
--
Cheers,
Dmitry Smirnov.
---
We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the way in which it has
been expressed is unsympathetic to us.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche
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