Re: NetBSD Wishlist

[christos%astron.com@localhost (Christos Zoulas)]

In article <4CEA9447.8050403%NetBSD.org@localhost>,
Marc Balmer  <mbalmer%NetBSD.org@localhost> wrote:
>Am 22.11.10 16:41, schrieb MTS Consult:
>> Hello,
>> 
>> Here my wishlist for NetBSD 6.0 to have more fun using it (and really
>> using it and not switching to other systems):
>
>To be honest, I really don't care if you switch to other systems.
>Developing for NetBSD has to be fun for the developers, too.  If you
>need a certain feature, try to find someone you pay to implement it ;)

I don't think that this was a threat :-)... He was genuinely trying to
give useful feedback from his own perspective (things that he thought
are important for us to have). Some of the features he mentioned we
already plan on doing.

>> 
>> + please drop CVS,RCS,SVN . They are not correct, slow, take too much
>> CPU and just pain in the ass to use
>>    DragonFly BSD has shown how awesome a distributed cvs is: they use
>> Linus' GiT.
>>    So why not developing a Distributed Tracking System the NetBSD way?
>> A NetBSD repository manager: Ngit.
>>    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XpnKHJAok8
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dhZ9BXQgc4

Well, I don't know/think that we are planning to write our own, but right
now we are busy fixing problems in our repository to make auto-converters
to work. The next step is to choose which DVCS we want to adopt.

>> + Out of the Box Kernel enabled Full Virtualisation expandable by
>> different userland modules on different platforms - Why do we have
>> XEN?

Let's first get MP done correctly on XEN.

>> + Support for more Filesystems. Whats going on in LINUX is crazy but
>> also awesome. New FS like JFFS2, RFS, BTRFS rock! they should be
>> considerd to be supported right from the beginning. NetBSD
>> intercompatibility with different MS and LINUX FS is annoying. NetBSD
>> should be able to talk natively to all other Storages from different
>> Systems. Thats suits NetBSD better as it runs on all systems but just
>> could talk to itself and other BSDs... Funny that with special
>> software even Windows and LINUX could write to slices but NetBSD still
>> is behind. Also I like to see HAMMERFS integrated natively and
>> certainly ZFS. UFS and FFS are - uhm... old in every aspect and
>> fashion. Maybe a Virtual Filesystem Layer (VFS) in the Kernel is
>> helping there.

Or fix the existing filesystems first: LFS/ZFS (or ditch LFS if nobody
will ever fix it).

>> + NetBSD LIVE CD/USB with each release - also would be nice to have
>> NetBSD Server and NetBSD Desktop showcase CD with each release! I dont
>> want to build each time the stuff I need. Even as Admin sometimes I
>> just want to use it. LINUX CDs are so handy and I am mad about the
>> fact that I cant just quickly download a NetBSD Server Edition and
>> "WORK" on a problem instead of first putting hours into creating a
>> system. NetBSD is time consuming like hell.

Yes, we are working on that and I think we'll have USB support for 6.0.
Hopefully Live CD too, but already this is provided by 3rd parties.

>> + integrating a small X-Window into the System.
>>    Something like Project "Wayland" from Canonical that has a
>> minimalistic mem footprint expandable by userland modules.

Yes, we have been thinking about providing a minimal graphical
environment for things like Qt to work without requiring X. No real
progress there and perhaps wayland is the way to go. Time will
tell. But first we need support for KMS and GEM, otherwise X will
stop working for most modern cards.

>> + NUMA support and a true scheduler für each MultiCore CPU

Yes, while there has been some scheduler work, we don't have real support
for numa or hyperthreading. Unfortunately no-one has stepped up to work
on those yet.

>> + More focus on Mobile Devices - NetBSD is in my opinion a better
>> System on mobiles than LINUX/Android. Tethering drivers (to iPhone and
>> Android) would be nice.

That would be nice to have too. Although it is more difficult for proprietary
protocols.

Thanks for the feedback,


christos