[227] in magellan
Linux/Athena Discovery Team notes: 7 July 1999
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Thomas Bushnell, BSG)
Tue Jul 13 14:42:46 1999
Date: Tue, 13 Jul 1999 14:42:43 -0400 (EDT)
Message-Id: <199907131842.OAA13203@pusey.mit.edu>
From: tb@MIT.EDU (Thomas Bushnell, BSG)
To: linux-disc@MIT.EDU
Cc: magellan@MIT.EDU, vkumar@MIT.EDU
Linux/Athena Discovery Team
7 July 1999
Present: Bill Cattey, Thomas Bushnell, Greg Hudson, Karl Ramm, Emil
Sit, Oliver Thomas, Abby Fox, Heather Harrison.
We discussed what is in scope and what is out of scope. We listed the
following items as clearly within scope:
* At least one specific hardware configuration fully supported
* A SAWS Webpage
* A software release to support cluster workstations
* A software release to support private workstations
* Listing, testing, and buying 3rd party software
* Updating Athena docs
* Developing a support plan, inculding RCCs, consultants, policy,
etc.
* Docs for cluster support and training
* Check the current recommendations from I/S for people buying
desktop computers against supported hardware for Linux/Athena
* Document the continuum of "supported" hardware
* Consider security of software in clusters, esp. wrt things like
Windoze install disks.
* Support for transition for locker maintainers from existing Linux
arch.
The following items were judged as clearl outside scope for this
project:
* Support all PC hardware
* Porting 3rd party software
* Encouraging students to buy a particular platform
* Physical security of cluster workstations
* Support for legacy PCs
* SGI Visual PC support (and similar products)
* non-Wintel hardware
* Dual-boot on cluster workstations
The following items were considered in detail by the team and judged
to be in or out of scope as indicated. Those things which are listed
here as in scope are not more questionably so than the items above;
these are merely the ones that we wanted to talk about in more detail
at the meeting:
* A software release to support layered Athena
--IN, if sufficiently easy
* provide a security enhancement package for the use of the net
security team and others.
--OUT, though people involved in Linux/Athena might still be able
to usefully provide such assistance
* cross-distribution support
--IN, for awareness of issues and incorporation of bugfixes
--OUT, for support and testing of a product
* extending 3rd party software purchases
--OUT
* providing a private workstation owners' guide
--IN, even if not fabulous, we should have something
* documentation for layering
--IN, if we do layering
* KDE/Gnome
--OUT, is a different project
* Investigate support for previous recommended desktop hardware
--IN
* Document transition from sipb Linux/Athena
--IN
* Software support for transition from sipb Linux/Athena
--OUT
* Dual boot on a layered system
--IN, if we do layering
* Dual boot on a cluster or private system
--OUT
* Support VMWare
--OUT, but it is possible follow on project
* Supported peripherals
--IN
* Supported extra "OS" software
--OUT
* Support for laptops
--OUT
And finally we articulated the following list of deliverable items
which would provide these items:
1) Documentation
2) A traditional Athena release
3) A support plan
4) A layered Athena release, provided it's easy enough to do.
