Subject: Roadmap and Future ...
From: Herbert Poetzl <herbert@13thfloor.at>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:30:26 +0100


Dear Linux-VServer Community!

Every now and then I get asked what the Roadmap for
Linux-VServer is and what Features or Changes can be
expected in the near (and far) future, so I decided
to share my thoughts with you on the ML.

(note that they are not just Roadmap related :)

First, Linux-VServer is not dead! :)

Despite the hype (7 and 2 years ago), mainline
(i.e. kernel.org) is not nearly ready to replace the
quite complex mechanisms required to build and run 
an isolated Guest, as Linux-VServer (and similar
Projects) provide.

Second, as the number of Linux-VServer kernel
hackers is still quite small, and a lot of changes
in mainline require quite some testing to get a new
Stable Version, I think we need to find a new 
revenue strain to get that work done.

To complicate things, my wife and I relocated to a
new, old house, which needs a lot of work, and we
still need to sell the old one (more to that at the
end of this posting)

One proposal I have (which was actually tested over
the years, and seems to work - at least for me) would
be that Companies using Linux-VServer get some kind
of 'Service Contract' with a Developer (which is a
good thing anyway), ranging between a single hour 
per month up to a day per week, for, let's say 100 
EUR per hour, which can be consumed or not, where in
the latter case, this time will be spent on general
Linux-VServer development and testing. (if you like
that idea, please contact me and I'm certain we can
arrange something)

The big advantage over occasional donations is that
the developer can 'somewhat' rely on that income and
does not need to 'hope' for an upcoming donation.

Now for the Roadmap: 

I think what we need most in the near future is a
new, well tested stable release, which can be adopted
by distributions and which will be maintained for
a reasonable amount of time, and that's actually what
I'm working on whenever time permits.

New features will mainly include adaptations of 'old'
features, lost and forgotten over time, and improve-
ments on the mainline integration (like cgroups and
such), as well as some virtualizations to simplify
handling and make it more guest friendly.

One upcoming mainline feature which I will try to
integrate as soon as it is available is the check-
pointing and resume functionality.

I also plan to do a web frontend to control basic
functionality and a minimalistic host distribution
to run Linux-VServer Guests on, but I have no idea 
when I will find time for that.

Finally, as usual, input here is welcome, so if you
have an isolation feature you want to see really soon,
or further questions, please let me know.


thanks in advance,
Herbert



Regarding the old house we are trying to sell:

I created a web page which will contain all required
information for a buyer, and I'd like to promote that
page (especially in and around Austria), so some link
to that page would probably help a lot for major search
engines to pick it up, i.e. what I am asking is that
if you have a site where you can put a link to it, that
would be really appreciated.

	http://www.reihenendhaus.at
(means end-of-terrace house in german)

sensible keywords would include:
Laaben, Reihenhaus, Garten, Siedlung, Verkauf