[BlueOnyx:03374] Re: Questions about BlueOnyx...

[Michael Stauber]

Hi Rodrigo,

> I installed it with the last version downloadale from SUN.
>
> Havent tested it much, But is is possible without much effort.
>
> It installs globally so it is enabled on all sites , there is no GUI
> integration, but maybe a merger can be made from the bluequartz package.

Yeah, the GUI RPMs for the BlueQuartz Chilisoft stuff probably would work on 
BlueOnyx if they're extracted from the BlueQuartz PKG. Maybe it would need 
some changes here and there - can't really say.

All in all it would be like three days of work to look through the code, 
modify it where needed and to roll up a new PKG specifically for BlueOnyx. 
Provided Brian would allow to modify the GUI code for the ASP integration that 
he rolled up (I didn't ask him about it, but would have to do that first).

However: Is there really a point to it as the Chislisoft stuff has been put 
out to greener pasture by Sun? 

I say: No, not really.

When Sun bought Chilisoft it fitted their agenda. "Hey, we can buy this 
company and have something that allows people to run Microsoft stuff on non-
Microsoft platforms! That'll annoy Gates and Ballmer to no end and that alone 
is worth it!" It was just another needle they rammed into the Microsoft voodoo 
puppet in a time of old when Sun had nothing but contempt for Microsoft and 
thought they were dealing with them on an eye level or were above and ahead of 
them in the "game". Which is a strategy and concept burried in the same 
cemetary as "Sun Linux", "Sun Cobalt", "StaQware" and others.

Anyway: As Ken Marcus pointed out: The current implementation of Chilisoft ASP 
has security holes and I doubt that Sun will close them. Even at best of times 
Chilisoft ASP couldn't emulate all the ASP features and it since then it has 
even fallen further behind as technology evolved.

All in all the situation with Chilisoft ASP is similar to the one with the 
Frontpage extensions for Linux. Both are "dead" technologies. The only 
difference is that you can still get ASP to work - but barely. With Frontpage 
that's not possible because it won't work with modern versions of Apache.

In BOTH cases however we (BlueOnyx) - regardless of if it were possible from a 
technical point of view - wouldn't be able to inlcude the actual third party 
code (Chilisoft ASP *or* Frontpage) into the mainline distribution because the 
license terms of the initial rights holders do not allow that. 

For that reason the Chilisoft ASP PKG for BlueQuartz was never included with 
Brian's BlueQuartz CD, but always offered as a separate download.

I don't really want to add "dead" technologies to BlueOnyx and include 
software with known security flaws. Instead my vision for BlueOnyx sees it 
with having more *modern* software on it that has a broader acceptance. And 
likewise: If it ain't open source and if it's not licenses under a BSD, (A)GPL 
or similar license, then the BlueOnyx CD will not include it.

-- 
With best regards

Michael Stauber