Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1999 11:44:58 -0700 From: Ian Murdock <imurdock@linuxvc.com> To: debian-devel@lists.debian.org Subject: Progeny Hello, You've probably read about this on Slashdot and other places already, but I thought I'd say a few words about the company I'm starting and what it is that we'll be doing. As you've probably already read, we're working on a commercial version of Debian called Progeny. Our initial focus is the technical market, and our work will be in such areas as integration of large networks of workstations and interoperability with other platforms. We will be doing some very exciting and innovative things with Debian in the coming months. Of course, other companies are already basing commercial systems on Debian. One of the ways we hope to differentiate ourselves is in how we approach this. Our goal is to take not just Debian but also the dynamic behind it and extend them both into the commercial world. To take one without the other loses something in the transition. This company will be committed to technical excellence, to community involvement, to hacker ideals, to cooperation and sharing, to free software. We want to take our proper place in the community that makes Debian what it is, and we want to do our part to help make it better, to help it grow and prosper, to help take it to new places. At the same time, we want to maintain an appropriate degree of separation. I kept Debian separate from commercial interests from the beginning, and I wouldn't ever want it any other way. Many of you have been asking what I've been up to these past few years. I've been at the University of Arizona since 1997, doing research in operating systems and storage systems. My primary project has been Swarm, a Linux-based storage system that provides scalable, reliable, and cost-effective data storage through its use of clustering, commodity hardware, and log-based striping. We've built some very cool things using Swarm, including a log-structured network file system for Linux called Sting, and a compatibility layer that makes Swarm look like an ordinary Linux block device, allowing us to run existing file systems like ext2fs on our Swarm cluster. We hope to make a public release of Swarm sometime next spring. I've also worked on Scout, an operating system for network appliances, and have done some work on software fault isolation and its use in application- driven specialization of operating system services. On a more personal note, Debra and I have been happily married for over five years now, and we're going to be parents for the first time in early March. As you might imagine, we're absolutely tickled about that. Anyway, that's it for now. I'm not going to say much more than I already have now, because actions speak louder than words, and I have a lot of work to do. Still, I'm more than happy to talk about what we're doing with any of you, so if you have any concerns, questions, suggestions or anything at all you'd like to talk about, please don't hesitate to contact me. Later, Ian -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-request@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org