Re: GNOME needs VA's help?

[Peter Petrakis <peterpan wn net>]

The up comming 256 node Alpha Cluster will be open for people to use
too.
http://www.alphalinux.org/cluster-faq.html. Building on Alpha finds more
bugs that would normally go unoticed in the intel world. Just build on
both platfroms at the saem time :).

Alpha Powered,
Peter Petrakis

-- 
STCC DEC Alpha Resource Page
http://math.stcc.mass.edu/petrakis
PeterPan@wn.net  AlphaGuy =)
"BLAM! Who the hell are you!? Name's Ash <click clock> Housewares..."

sml13@cornell.edu wrote:
> 
> Hi Dan!  Wow, you guys really keep your ear to the
> ground in terms of what's going on in Gnome-Land here!  Great!
> 
> Yes, well, I've bandied about the idea that perhaps VA might be able to give
> us some kind of discount on a YMP system for doing constant builds on the
> Gnome source tree.  This would ensure stability of the desktop that (I
> presume) will eventually be shipped with most VA computers.  The
> Tinderbox method that Mozilla/Netscape has devised seems (from my own
> observation) to be a really effective way of ensuring stability and
> accountability for bugs introduced by CVS commits.  Up until a few days
> ago, having a stable source tree wasn't such a big issue, as everyone was
> feverishly working to get their bells-and-whistles into the code for the
> feature-freeze anyway.  Now that we have a "stable" branch of feature-frozen
> code that is being groomed for a dynamite (and relatively bug-free) Gnome
> 1.0 release, I
> think the time is probably right for a Tinderbox to be set up.
> 
> Well, with all this
> whining and talking that I have been doing, the question has been asked
> "why don't you set one up yourself, Shane?"  Although I do have a
> cable-modem connection to the internet (making CVS downloads a breeze),
> my computer is a paltry AMD K6-233Mhz w/64M SDRAM (and a 4.0G Linux
> partition that is bursting at the seams as is).
> 
> As you probably well know, compilation is a very processor-intensive
> activity.  Compiling the entire Gnome source tree CONSTANTLY is
> back-breaking labor for any lesser system :-)  If, however, we could set
> up a dual-processor VA YMP server (with the latest 2.1.xxx SMP Linux
> kernel) to do these builds around the clock, I think that the Gnome
> source tree would see an exponential rise in stability.  This way, by
> simply visiting a web-page, developers would know whether the tree is in a
> cosistent, "safe" state or up in flames.  It would also increase
> accountability, as "blame annotations" could be placed on the web page
> (as you see at
> http://cvs-mirror.mozilla.org/webtools/tinderbox/showbuilds.cgi?tree=raptor) and emails
> could be sent to gnome-list and all developers who made commits to the
> server since it caught on fire.
> 
> I don't claim to be that much of a representative of the Gnome hacker
> community.  I'm more the type who is constantly downloading the tree to
> build the cool new features that are being added to gnome on a daily
> basis and then complaining about the build breaking (and begging for
> help on gnome-list, hopefully contributing some semi-useful bug reports
> in the process :-).  But I would love to continue helping out along these
> lines
> until I do know the API's well enough to contribute as a "hacker."
> Perhaps there is someone at RHAD who would be a better contact on the
> Gnome end for a collaborative hardware relationship.  But, if they are too
> busy hacking (as I suspect they are), I would be happy to help
> coordinate the acquisition of and/or administrate a
> Tinderbox server if appropriate.
> 
> Thank you for your time,
> Shane Lenagh
> 
> On Thu, 17 Dec 1998, Dan Bethe wrote:
> 
> >       Hi there, Shane and friends!  I got a forward of a message
> > from gnome-list@gnome.org.  It says that you're interested in someone
> > getting you a good deal on a huge machine or array of machines to use
> > as Tinderbox.
> >       My only personal knowledge of Tinderbox comes from the listed
> > url, http://www.mozilla.org/tinderbox.html.  Looks good!  I dig it.
> > You have at this point, at the very least, the moral support of VA
> > Research's president Larry Augustin, and various others who know of
> > your need.
> >       I'm contacting you now because it needs to be done, although
> > I'm brand new to VA and don't know the procedures for a full scale discounted
> > community research machine.  I just know
> > that things like this are part of our complete total direct
> > objective.  And I know that someone needs to get the ball rolling!
> >       Chris DiBona (vice president of SVLUG and director of VA
> > marketing) might be the guy to start with?  chris@varesearch.com.
> > He'll be back from New York at some point, and then we have the
> > holidays coming up.
> >       You can call our normal sales channels at 1-888-linux-4u, to
> > get a feel for what's available and an "official" price quote.  Just
> > somewhere to start.
> >       Then, you have Rob Walker and I who are VA's 'IT' department.
> > Perhaps we can help discuss your application, and if you need network
> > hosting, we'll colocate it here definately for NO CHARGE to you.
> > And you have Larry, who says "let's help these guys!"
> >       So now I've said hello to everyone, and you know who's who.
> > So what's up?  Have you any idea of your hardware requirements, other
> > than "really big and cheap"?  ;-)
> >       BTW....Mandrake might remember me from #e, and from bugging
> > him and Rasterman about how I can help with GNOME and Enlightenment.
> > I've since then moved to being sysadmin of VA Research, so there ya
> > go!  And if I can help with the relationship that Mandrake painfully
> > details on the front page of mandrake.org, my services are available
> > there as well.  :}
> >
> 
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