Strategic Thinking (was: Re: Speculative: Rust for base system components)

[Cy Schubert]

In message <alpine.BSF.2.20.1901041132430.45366 at puchar.net>, Wojciech 
Puchar wr
ites:
> >
> > I come from the corporate/government environment, having spent most of
> > my time there. Large datacentres (Canadian spelling), large machines,
> > large networks of machines, large networks. In this environment, today,
> > virtualization in all forms are the platforms of business. Migrations
> > from physical platforms running AIX, Solaris and Linux to either Linux
> > on VMware or Linux containers is where they are putting 100% of their
> > effort. The language of choice is mostly Java. Much of the Java is
> > canned too. What used to be implemented on LAMP stacks is now being
> > implemented using microservices. The platform of choice for
> > microservices is Linux. Stripped down Linux primarily capable of
>
> Just as fashion changes.

Every seven years (approximately) the shift between centralization to 
decentralization and back occurs. It started out with reimplementation 
of applications once on the mainframe on the PC. It centralized back to 
large UNIX servers, back to thick clients, then thin clients, now back 
to the cloud. However there is a distinct path by which technology is 
evolving. Currently the shift to microservices is making the operating 
system irrelevant. The Linux-specific API and ABI is winning. I 
predicted this to my management at $JOB almost ten years ago, telling 
them the operating system will become a stub. And, here we are.

My points were:

A) FreeBSD needs to become a platform that can host current and 
evolving virtualization technologies.

B) FreeBSD should be able to play in the container space similarly to 
Linux. Unfortunately I believe that this horse has left the barn and it 
may be too late. Then again maybe there is something we can redeem.

> >
> > IMO we have strengths that can immediately be capitalized on, like the
> > Linuxulator. If anything could be in base it might be go, the language
>
> What do you mean "capitalized"?

Made use of.

>
> FreeBSD already allow to do all mentioned things, but anyway someone 
> who use FreeBSD is usually smart enough  to not blidnly copy what is now 
> trendy.

Kind of but we need to play in that space. Look at some of the other 
*BSDs, Solaris and AIX. One BSD failed to embrace SMP like we did. They 
also failed to embrace vritualization to the degree we did. Except for 
a small niche for which they are well known they are a two bit player.

Blindly copy? No. But be able to play somewhere in the space, most 
definitely. We have very good technology. The reason we are where we 
are is thanks to a large part in our adoption of strategic 
technologies. Rust IMO is not strategic. Sure fork FreeBSD and if it's 
of benefit import it back. (Even a project branch.) I think we need to 
focus our efforts on more productive endeavours. Endeavours that help 
maintain the relevance we still have and preferably build on it. 
Importing rust will cause a fair bit of churn consuming already meager 
developer resources (which is why the cull is planned and in progress), 
even of those not directly participating in the project. If we're 
looking for work there is a lot out there that will help build on our 
market share -- which in turn will increase adoption, which in the long 
run will hopefully keep FreeBSD relevant for the long haul.


-- 
Cheers,
Cy Schubert <Cy.Schubert at cschubert.com>
FreeBSD UNIX:  <cy at FreeBSD.org>   Web:  http://www.FreeBSD.org

	The need of the many outweighs the greed of the few.