/dev/dump

As a consequence of work I've been doing lately since I joined Sun, I've learned some things that folks who care a great deal about performance might like to know. The most important of these is that not all gigabit cards are created equal. And even among those that are, some of them get preferential treatment at Sun. One surprise: the gigE device that gets the most preferential treatment is not a Sun branded NIC. In fact, its a device that you can readily find at your local computer retailer. I speak of bge. The bge (Broadcom) NIC has some very, very sophisticated logic on it, that Crossbow is going to be able to take advantage of to get you some very nice performance acceleration, plus some greatly added support for QoS and stack virtualization. If you're thinking about a NIC, my first choice would be a Broadcom NIC. The Cassini (Sun Gigaswift) has many of the same features, but costs more, and is harder to find. And, the Cassini isn't supported by some of the cr...

Its official! The OpenSolaris Constitution has been ratified . Yay! Congratulations to the new OGB as well. I'm generally very pleased with the election results, despite not getting elected myself. A few interesting tid bits: 1) Rich Teer is the only non-Sun OGB member. (And apparently he has done some work for Sun.) 2) The entire OGB seems to be made up of engineers. 3) Neither female member was elected. 4) There are two ARC members sitting. (James Carlson and Alan Coopersmith.) 5) There seems to be good geographical representation... i.e. MPK (and SFBay in general) don't seem to be overweighted. 6) Several members have sat on other FOSS boards (at least Glynn and Alan) I would have liked to see someone with more marketing and program management elected. In future years, I'd like to see the process for Core Contributor grants revised. I think only folks who are active in the community should have this role ... I think a lot of people got grants just because they commi...

I just cast my ballot for the OGB and ratification of the constitution. I will not tell you who I voted for, but I will say two things. First off, the decision was hard . There are some excellent candidates running. I'm pretty confident that we are going to have a great OGB, made of up reasonable individuals who are passionate about OpenSolaris. (Yes, I did vote for myself, but I also voted for quite a few other people... there are 7 seats, after all.) Second, I did vote to ratify the Draft Consitution. I hope you did, too. The window of time to cast your ballot is quickly drawing to a close. Polls close on Monday, so be sure to cast your ballot before then. Unlike some others, I waited a bit, primarily because I wanted to hear what some of the other candidates had to say. So even if you have not voted yet, please do so today . Even if you abstain from voting on the candidates, at least make a statement on the ratification of the constitution. I believe it is important to...

Apparently, I am not the only one who started here at Sun yesterday. Auspicious? Wait and see... Meantime, I spent yesterday meeting the group, and getting to know what I'll be working on. There's some exciting stuff going on, and while I can't really talk about it now, the good news is that eventually the good stuff will make into OpenSolaris.

Simon Phipps (aka webmink) interviewed me yesterday as part of the series of interviews he is giving to the OGB candidates. This is an excellent way to get some idea of each of the candidates; if you're a Core Contributor, I recommend checking his blog out.

As you probably know, I'm running for a seat on the OpenSolaris Governing Board (OGB). I've answered a number of questions already, but I really like how Keith Wesolows has set up a position statement, so much so that I'm going to do the same. Much of my layout and presentation follows his, but rest assured that there are real meaty differences here. :-) Before I do that, after reviewing a lot of the material that has been submitted by nominees, I do think there is a really good group of candidates who are as passionate and level-headed as I am running... its likely that I'll be happy with the board that is elected regardless of whether I'm on it or not. Now, on to the details... I'll start with my positions on things, along with a short bio at the end. The Constitution YES. The document isn't perfect, but it is an excellent start, and we can address issues with it as we move along. Without it, the OGB cannot exist, and the project will not be able t...

This is my new blog, replacing the short-lived Celestial Bodies, Amphibians, and Reptiles blog I set up while an employee at General Dynamics (formerly Tadpole Computer.) There will be more here in short bit, particularly an update on my position for the OpenSolaris Governing Board (OGB).