Fwd: LSB 3.2 Embedded Profile

[Joe.MacDonald@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (MacDonald, Joe)]

On Wed, 2008-04-16 at 21:18 -0400, Theodore Tso wrote:

> On Wed, Apr 16, 2008 at 01:50:47PM -0700, MacDonald, Joe wrote:
> > > + Do the distros that you're LSB 4.0 registering include qt and gtk
> > > today?  If so, you wouldn't be able to certify under this profile.
> > > Could you please confirm that you're shipping non-GUI distros today.
> > 
> > Wind River's CGL-registered distros on the market today are CLI-only if
> > you're using our default configurations.
> 
> Do you ship a GUI stack at all with your product?  Or is it just that
> it isn't installed by "default"?  SuSE doesn't install all of the LSB
> required graphical libraries by default either, but doesn't mean that
> it can't be LSB certified.

I dislike trying to sound like I'm splitting hairs, but I have to say
mostly no.  Wind River Linux includes packages that will provide a GUI,
but they're not part of our networking equipment distribution and aren't
supported in that configuration.  So if you buy PNE-LE (our networking
equipment product) and PCD-LE (our consumer electronics version), you
can still add in packages from PCD-LE (which does include a GUI) to
PNE-LE, but it's not a configuration we support.  It's easier than you
going out and downloading the SRPMs and building them yourself since PNE
and PCD share a common build system, etc., but as far as PNE is
concerned, there is no GUI.


> One of the interesting questions in the embedded world is that users
> will always strip out any library they don't need, which I think is
> perfectly fair.  I would think that it's not reasonable to require
> end-users of embedded distributions to install a full LSB stack if
> it's not necessary.  If an application needs only a subset of the LSB,
> and the OS and the application(s) are going to be frozen in ROM, such
> as in the something like the Sony Reader, it doesn't seem necesary to
> require that the GUI stack be shipped if it's not necessary.
> 
> On the other hand, if the idea that Independent Software Vendors are
> going to be installing applications on the platform while it is in the
> user's hands, such as might be the case in a Limo or Moglin password,
> that's a different story.
> 
> So if "embedded" means something like the Sony Reader, and an embedded
> distribution is going to be shipping the GUI stack, but the product
> designer decides not to install the GUI stack, I don't think that
> would be a problem in terms of whether or not the embedded
> distribution can be LSB certified or not.

Okay, I think I understand your point here is that "embedded" may be
casting too wide of a net.  When I first heard the discussion a little
while back, I was in favour of "embedded" over "CGL" since I was
thinking of that profile as being distinct from a "mobile" LSB profile
and an "entertainment" (for lack of a better word while coffee-less this
morning) LSB profile and so on.  So I'd thought that this profile we're
talking about was going to be the first of a handful of profiles
targeted at LSB certification for distinct markets.  The "embedded" name
might not be the best one for this market, though, and maybe CGL is a
better choice.


> > > + Could you please list some of the most important closed source
> > > applications that run on your CGL distros today?  We would like to
> > > pull them into the LSB process and convince them of the value of LSB
> > > certifying.
> > 
> > Obviously the most important closed-source applications are from Wind
> > River, right?  ;-)
> 
> Well, the big thing that we're most worried about is __Idependent__
> Software Vendor.  If you're just going to shipping your own
> closed-source applications with your Linux distro, you don't really
> need to use the LSB to ensure interoperability, do you?  :-)

True, though even in a relatively small company I think there's value in
knowing the product follows the LSB standards so independent teams can
operate assuming certain things are constant and that key applications
can be run on other LSB distributions.

But yeah, as far as ISV stuff on WR Linux goes, I'll have to get back to
you all on that.

Joe MacDonald, Member of Technical Staff, Wind River
direct 613.270.5750  mobile 613.291.7421  fax 613.592.2283   
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