[Kolab-devel] Fwd: Introducing OpenPKG 4.x

Tue Dec 8 08:08:10 CET 2009

Hi,

somthing like this was expected for a while. 

I therefore propose to prepare a decision with regards to using OpenPKG within 
the Kolab Project.

What about an IRC discussion in the near future?

Yours,
-- martin

----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: Introducing OpenPKG 4.x
Date: Monday 07 December 2009
From: Thomas Lotterer <thl at openpkg.org>
To: openpkg-announce at openpkg.org

Dear fellows.

Time to keep you posted what's going on in the world of OpenPKG.

     **** OpenPKG 4.x concept ****

You might have noticed that the latest "openpkg" bootstrap package has
been released on openpkg.org just before the end of the year 2007.
Beginning 2008-01-01 OpenPKG has adopted the "Open Source Software
Refinement" (OSSR) architecture [1] which was first published on "Open
Source Meets Business" event in January 2007. The substantial change was
to split packages from the framework. The idea is to let users focus on
using Software Stacks (SS), maintainers focus on maintaining Software
Packages (SP) and developers focus on developing the Package Framework
(PF).

     SC + PS = SP

The OSSR architecture defines that Software Components (SC) are packaged
into Software Packages (SP) by adding Package Specifications (PS). This
is how OpenPKG worked all the time, so no change here. However, to
emphasize this concept to the community, the license ownership has been
transferred to the OpenPKG Foundation e.V. which is since then
responsible to supply SPs and continues to issue them under BSD style
Open Source license.

     SP + PF = SS

The OSSR architecture also defines that Software Stacks (SS) are built
from Software Packages (SP) by adding a Package Framework (PF). This is
once again the way OpenPKG worked all the time, so no change here as
well. However, what has been formerly known as the "bootstrap" has been
renamed to the "framework". The PF development is solely driven by the
OpenPKG GmbH which owns the copyright of some core PF components.

     **** OpenPKG 4.x licensing ****

The next generation of OpenPKG ships with full source code and the
framework is subject to a commercial license. There is a license for
free evaluation (EVAL), one license is free for creating examples,
documentation and trainings (EXAMPLE), one license is free for "bleeding
edge" "build from source" stacks (COMMUNITY). More licenses are possible
with one variant being a time-limited promotional offering (PROMO).
Finally, for static installations, a shareware license (VALUE) will be
available for a small fee.

The framework is licensed and anyone who wants to run it has to acquire
a license. The VALUE license works "per kernel". This approach was
chosen to encourage users to deploy many OpenPKG instances on one
system, while still allowing fully administrative disjunct installations
using chroots, jails, zones and vservers. In contrast, bare metal,
hardware virtualization, and multiple kernels require additional
licenses per se. The price is in the typical low cost shareware space
and licenses can be obtained from an online shop soon. The VALUE license
allows run-time usage of all OpenPKG 4.x frameworks released in the
past, the present one and all future frameworks within one year after
purchase -- as long as technically feasible. It has no run-time
limitations related to space, time, packages, users, network, domain,
processors, instances etc.

     **** OpenPKG 4.x technology ****

The OpenPKG GmbH has great impact on RPM5 development. In fact it hosts
the project infrastructure [3], and it is no surprise the infrastructure
is built from OpenPKG 4.x with RPM5. Almost every OpenPKG improvement
which was previously developed for RPM4 has not only been ported to, but
has become an integral part of, RPM5.

There is a smooth but short upgrade path where both the old bootstrap
and the new framework will continue to work with old and CURRENT
packages, providing full interoperability. Backwards compatibility in
all areas from package file format, package database, package
specifications and instance administration was the major goal for
OpenPKG 4.x. However, in order to unleash the power of the new framework
it is inevitable that packages leverage new features. This evolution
will break compatibility between the RPM4 based <=2007 and RPM5 based
  >=2010 generations. Please note there are no plans to enhance, bug- or
security fix, port or otherwise improve the 2007 bootstrap, nor are
there any plans of maintaining dual packages. Expect 2009-12-31 being
the end of the RPM4-based and 2010-01-01 being the start of RPM5-based
OpenPKG development. Needless to say, this does in no way affect
existing installations.

     **** OpenPKG 4.x infrastructure ****

In order to consolidate services and introduce the new concept to the
community we will disable RSYNC, FTP and CVS services on openpkg.org by
2009-12-31. The OpenPKG GmbH pushes the Package Framework (PF) to
openpkg.org and the OpenPKG Foundation e.V. pushes the Software Packages
(SP) to openpkg.org. The resulting stacks can be downloaded from
openkg.org through HTTP. There are no replacements for RSYNC and FTP.
The result is a HTTP based infrastructure where users work with packages
only.

     **** OpenPKG 4.x summary ****

- Software Stacks (SS) = Package Framework (PF) + Software Packages (SP)
- Full source code shipping
- Open Source Software Packages (SP)
- Shareware Package Framework (PF) with some licenses available for free
- OpenPKG 4.x Beta available now [4]
- Shutdown of FTP, RSYNC and public CVS by the end of year 2009
- HTTP access already available now
- 2009-12-31 end of RPM4-based OpenPKG package development
- 2010-01-01 start of RPM5-based OpenPKG package development

Now go ahead and build Software Stacks ...

[1]
http://www.openpkg.com/events/osmb2007/openpkg-osmb2007-poster-low-
resolution.pdf
[2] http://www.heise.de/events/2007/open_source_meets_business/
[3] http://rpm5.org/
[4] http://download.openpkg.org/framework/testing/source/

-- 
Ralf S. Engelschall and Thomas Lotterer
______________________________________________________________________
OpenPKG                                             http://openpkg.org
Announcement List                         openpkg-announce at openpkg.org

-------------------------------------------------------