No one should be surprised by this. Excuse me, this.
Much of what is going on at OpenSolaris is a cry for attention. The code is moribund but its dependents are still out there. The marriage is over but the kids need a place to stay.
So Garratt D’Amore has opened the door on Illumos, with some videos and a “brag” page on the media coverage.
It’s more of a trial separation than a divorce (although in “Porgy & Bess” it took an expert to divorce those who were not married). The wits at The Register call it a spork — not quite a fork.
More like a cry for help, like Snooki’s arrest. For now it’s just a repository around the shell libraries, a small code base around which a development community could be created.
Why? Consider that there are other companies besides Oracle that depend on the technologies around OpenSolaris, such as Nexenta, the storage company for which D’Amore works.
While Oracle and the OpenSolaris board continue to squabble like Heidi and Spencer, those who depend on the code feel like they have to do something.
So maybe this is an intervention. They’re telling Oracle that if it wants to run out the clock on OpenSolaris, kill it by ignoring it, they can take their ball and go elsewhere. (Someone will love me!) But if Oracle wants to put up some money they could, in time, shut up.
That’s what it’s always about, isn’t it? Let’s just admit it and move on.
If it doesn’t seem like I’m taking Illumos seriously, there is a reason. I’m not. In the comments, someone tell me why I should.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a journalist, writer and part-time futurist for over 30 years.
