To: lwn@eklektix.com Subject: Core/Layers announcement Date: Wed, 20 May 1998 15:30:22 -0700 From: Erik Walthinsen <omega@omegacs.net> The Core/Layers spec, which you've probably heard some about if you watch slashdot.org, is ready to be publicly announced. You can find our current draft at http://www.seul.org/dev/distrib/core/spec.html. I have talked with the FreeLinux project, which is doing a meta-distribution. It sounds like the Core/Layers spec might combine with the FreeLinux project as the reference implementation. That means we are roughly three weeks from release of the meta-distribution (according to the FreeLinux guy) and closer if I can help them out. At the same time I'd like to put out something like 0.1 or 0.5 of the spec. We've been getting some good comments from a few people, and we're modifying the spec to match. Once I see what the FreeLinux stuff looks like, we'll start moving in that direction. The Core/Layers spec (along with the reference distribution that FreeLinux is working on) presents a superset of the Linux System Base (LSB) proposal under discussion on slashdot.org. It addresses some of the issues that Erik Troan and RedHat are worried about (see his comment in slashdot), and it's already under development. The plan is to gather as much information as we can on all existing distributions (we have a start on that, see our page) and try to find the most central definition we can (least distance from all existing distribs). Then the FreeLinux meta-distribution will provide a distribution-neutral (vs. the redhat base I'm starting from) base from which we can work. We'll document the deltas between the distributions and the Core spec (not the reference implementation), which will provide them with the information they need to become compliant. Of course, this whole project would be pointless without input and direction from the existing distributions. To solve that issue, we need input from people on every distribution out there that would consider being compliant. To that end, we've created a mailing list to help communications. Send mail to majordomo@seul.org, with a body of 'subscribe core-layers'. It can be filtered by the Sender: header, which will be owner-core-layers@seul.org. The project's homepage is at http://www.seul.org/dev/distrib/core/, and FreeLinux can be found at http://www.freelinux.org/. TTYL, Omega Erik Walthinsen <omega@seul.org> - SEUL Project system architect __ / \ SEUL: Simple End-User Linux - | | M E G A Creating a Linux distribution _\ /_ for the home or office user