[fedora-india] Moving Forward in Open Source

[steve]

Hi,

On 06/22/2010 12:37 PM, "sankarshan (সঙ্কর্ষণ)" wrote:
> <http://pcquest.ciol.com/content/editorscolumn/techetete/2010/110010801.asp>
>
> I think we are losing the value of Open Source. The core objective of
> Open Source has been to let people learn the internals of a software
> application with the help of source code, and improve it further so that
> everyone benefits.
>
> [...]
>
> Let's understand this with my favorite example-Anaconda installer for
> RedHat based Linux distros. Anaconda is a fantastic piece of software,
> but it lacks documentation. So to modify it, you have to be a reverse
> engineer, and not a software developer. Therefore, contributing to its
> further development is difficult.
>

As someone who has actually hacked on anaconda I can say this is 100% nonsense 
as far as anaconda is concerned, because:

a. Anaconda is a distro installer -- the Fedora/Red Hat/Red Had based system's 
installer !! It is not an application per-se, and the very nature of a distro 
installer implies that there will be a new release every 6 months which implies 
that there will be very specific changes to complement changes introduced by the 
distro. For example, change from ext2->LVM->ext3->ext4 between the FC6 (?) to 
F13 releases. Now, /despite/ this

b. Anaconda /design/ and structure are *very* well documented:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda/SourceOverview

c. Even the general structure of the two stages of the installation are well 
documented:
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda/Stage1DevelopmentGuide
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda/Stage2DevelopmentGuide

d. The anaconda community is /very/ helpful knowing full well that people who do 
what to hack on anaconda might be a bit lot/intimidated by the source code. So, 
what might be missing in documentation is more that made up in the mailing-list 
archives or better yet by asking a question.

That article is just a rant for the sake of a rant -- no substance, no research. 
I doubt the author even ever wanted to hack on anaconda.

cheers,
- steve

-- 
random spiel: http://lonetwin.net/
what i'm stumbling into: http://lonetwin.stumbleupon.com/