[TenTec] Technical Correspondence

[Clark Savage Turner]

Heck, you can hack at my replies anytime, Duane :-)  You're well 
qualified!

Yes, it is not an easy analogy and would have its problems.  I'm 
idealizing a whole lot.  Ten Tec would be at the helm, using 
SourceForge for coordination but they would release binary versions of 
their fully approved package.  Users who do NOT want to tinker or worry 
about others' tinkering just download the binaries and forget about it 
all.  Tinkerers go to SourceForge where there are forks to allow fixing 
and addition of features that anyone can fiddle with, IF they are 
responsible for their own craziness (and sometimes its just that :-)  
They'd have to know how to go back to former, stable versions, stuff 
like that.  Normal consumers, not interested in messing around, just 
stick with the main binary version approved and worked over by the 
folks at Ten Tec.

Wouldn't that be wonderful?  OK, and I still play a lot of Steve 
Goodman tunes, too.

Clark
WA3JPG

On Jul 26, 2007, at 3:29 PM, Duane Calvin wrote:

> But aren't comparisons of "open source" code using Linux as a 
> reference a
> bit flawed?  Who will be the agency who approves the code module 
> changes to
> an Orion (for example) if this were to be the path taken?  Who would 
> test
> each of the possibilities all in combination with the others?  Even the
> various Linux distro's can't keep the kernels in sync, and, while I'm 
> not
> familiar with the specific implementation, they have an approval body 
> for
> what does and doesn't make it into the various releases.  Companies who
> specify Linux have to be careful about which releases are picked up, 
> how
> much testing they have before using them, and how to release on a 
> realistic
> schedule for users.  This is not trivial work, and to assume open 
> source
> would work without significant effort from Ten-Tec would be inaccurate.
> (I'm not responding to Clark here, just making a general observation 
> based
> on my work with proprietary Unix, AIX, and various Linux distro's.)
>
> 	73, Duane
>
> Duane Calvin, AC5AA
> Austin, Texas
> www.ac5aa.com
>