Talk to the IBM Linux Hackers 245
We've all heard plenty about IBM's investment in Linux, but we don't hear much from -- or about -- the actual Linux developers at IBM. This interview is not with one person, but with a number of IBM Linux people spearheaded by Dave Hansen, who volunteered to help us with this interview. Of the group responding to your questions, Dave says, "There are more people, but the majority of the group's skills are represented. No surprise that we'll have our responses reviewed before we send them back to you, but we'll try to expedite that.
"A little background:
The group's experience is pretty broad. Most members were Sequent employees who worked on Dynix/PTX before IBM acquired Sequent (we are still mostly based in Beaverton, OR). Not everyone was with Sequent; Matt Dobson and Dave Hansen came into the group last summer, right out of college. A few of our Austin colleagues are long time IBM employees who worked on the AIX kernel before moving to Linux. Ask about anything from the rmap VM, to PTX's crashdump facilities, to life in Portland :)
- Martin Bligh - Large IA32 system VM scalability, Specweb, NUMA
- Dave Hansen - Big Kernel Lock, SMP locking, Specweb99
- Matt Dobson - NUMA API/ Documentation
- Rick Lindsley - SMP/NUMA Locking, Performance Tuning
- Patricia Gaughen - Discontiguous Memory for NUMA
- Bill Irwin - VM/rmap hacker
- Hanna Linder - dcache_lock scalability
- Janet Morgan - I/O Scalability
- Ruth Forrester - database/performance/scalability"
Multi-CPU Scalability (Score:5, Interesting)
OS Blending (Score:5, Interesting)
gnome? (Score:3, Interesting)
Features! (Score:5, Interesting)
compiler (Score:3, Interesting)
from AIX to Linux (Score:5, Interesting)
Women in computing (Score:2, Interesting)
What are your opinions regarding the shrinking number of women in the industry? (actually I believe the numbers are rising again in schools)
Will Linux be free over the long run? (Score:3, Interesting)
The licenses are still open, but as a practical matter, most of the core development is being done by corporate people that are concentrated in a few companies like RedHat, and to a lesser extent, IBM.
Do we low end users have cause to worry about this? Does IBM worry about the control that a company like RedHat has over IBM's Linux initiative? And is it really possible, as a pratical matter, for technology as complex as GCC to be forked by volunteers?
Re:OS Blending (Score:5, Interesting)
Filesystems (Score:4, Interesting)
My work is particularly interested in filesystems > 64 TB and RAID with > 20 devices.
The Open Source model (Score:5, Interesting)
Linux? (Score:5, Interesting)
Getting your changes accepted? (Score:5, Interesting)
Is Linus accepting your changes well? How directly do you submit patches, and what are your experiences on the overall Linux kernel development style?
linux on thinkpads (Score:5, Interesting)
Linux On The Desktop (Score:5, Interesting)
Best way into the Professional Linux world? (Score:5, Interesting)
As many people here, I am a huge Linux fan, but I am so much so that I am trying to figure out how to get into the professional Linux world when I graduate.
I attend Clemson University [clemson.edu] and am in the Computer Information System (CS + business) program [clemson.edu] (and doubled in Political Science [clemson.edu]). My goal is to become a Linux sys admin, or perhaps some other Linux guru type job. The work that IBM is doing with Linux is also very appealing to me.
So, how did you get your job, and what would you recommend as the path to follow for us geeks just getting started in the professional world as to how to get into Linux? How can I become as entrenched with Linux as the professionals at IBM? I have had two internships (not with IBM, nor with Linux, but with other CS stuff), but how can I get an entry-level job in a Linux intensive environment like IBM? How can said job lead me into a career where I can be deeply involved in the Linux world?
distros? (Score:5, Interesting)
Also explaining why you chose that distrobution would be great.
Thanks
Issues with middle management (Score:5, Interesting)
What is Linux Missing? (Score:5, Interesting)
What features do you find linux most lacking in?
(If we don't examine our weaknesses, we will be crippled)When do you estimate Linux can surpass Solaris? (Score:5, Interesting)
___
More about *nixs as a whole, and your view. (Score:3, Interesting)
Most everyone in the world would say that Linux/Unix is not as user friendly as say OSX and Windows/add suffix here.
With that in mind do you guys see this complexity as a bonus or a henderance to all *nixs moving forward, and please let us know why you feel this way.
FreeBSD (Score:1, Interesting)
OS/2 Developers (Score:5, Interesting)
Specifically, the user interface and accessability people - OS/2 was very polished - does IBM see a benefit by offering this expertise to the GNOME/KDE projects?
If so, how does this tie into IBM's vision of Linux of the desktop, if you have one?
Older IBM Machines (Score:3, Interesting)
My question is this, along with bringing linux to the newer machines, are there plans to support the older machines?
Linux on AS/400 (Score:4, Interesting)
ViaVoice and Linux -- what's happening? (Score:5, Interesting)
What can IBM tell us about the company's future plans for voice recognition under Linux, and in particular, if IBM found supporting the ViaVoice SDK economically unviable, is there any chance that they could open source the code so that volunteers could continue to maintain/develop it?
As evidence of the open source community's interest in the SDK, check out the projects in Sourceforge that rely on it. I just hope that IBM doesn't let the Linux ViaVoice SDK go the way of Blender !!!
Re:Linux On The Desktop (Score:1, Interesting)
C++ compiler for Linux? (Score:4, Interesting)
IBM's the good guy now? (Score:2, Interesting)
Lin Vs Win (Score:2, Interesting)
Linux Distribution Flavors (Score:2, Interesting)
Ruger
Re:OS Blending (Score:3, Interesting)
Is IBM's commitment to Linux political hype? (Score:3, Interesting)
CAN YOU SAY "C A T I A" (Score:2, Interesting)
The only shops that i know of that are going to V5 are changing to NT from AIX.
Linux within IBM's Profesionnal Services (Score:2, Interesting)
Evangelizing Linux on PowerPC (Score:3, Interesting)
IA64 (Score:5, Interesting)
In general, the Itanium has seen quite poor adoption rates and even Intel/HP admit that their initial public silicon is really only fit for software developers and platform work (due to low performance, and altready established players in the 64-bit field).
Do you think that IPF64 line will see any kind of broad industry adoption? Will it become just like rest of the (non-embedded) processor architectures designed since the x86 -- constantly fighting for 5% of the market? Do you think the AMD Hammer architecture will be a meaningful player in the field?
Since your group is a key player in the Linux on IA64 and GCC for IA64 projects, can you give us any status information about recent developments in the project since the IA-64 Summit [linuxia64.org]?
Thanks,
-Chris [nondot.org]
The Linux Perception... (Score:3, Interesting)
Linux needs positive marketing. So my question is, what can you do to champion Linux with IBM's giant huge marketing machine? Not every IT person in the world reads Slashdot (I'd venture to say less than 1%), but a large number of IT people read MS marketing. So the perception most IT people have about Linux is through a Microsoft lens.
390 code (Score:5, Interesting)
IBM support for Linux (Score:3, Interesting)
IBM never release any desktop tools for Linux. The Lotus SmartSuite never hit the Linux Desktop, nor Notes. By doing this, IBM it's the only company with Microsoft do not port they office suite to Linux.
The IBM's Lexmark company never provide any driver for the home
IBM also dicontinue the support for ViaVoice under Linux!
IBM also doesn't support they desktop and notebook hardware under Linux or other free OS! IBM even take the FreeBSD partition number to use it for it's "suppend to disk" on the bios of ThinkPad making them unusable for FreeBSD !
I really think that's IBM only take the Linux part they need now, and don't look at the future.
The grid computing it's right there at our door, and already desktop begin to replace mainframe in batch processing. We are now using lost cpu cycle do process job under the Windows and Linux desktop. If IBM doesn't investigate this oppurtunity (and the Linux Desktop) in the neer future, IBM will just don't get the next wave and will begin to clash !
IBM Linux? (Score:5, Interesting)
Any future outside of Mainframe shops? (Score:2, Interesting)
A example, widely sited, states that great cost savings can be achieved by consolidating 100's if not 1000's of pc servers. This only works, if the servers being replaced are under extremely low work loads. Many argue that a much greater savings could be achieved in consolidating serives on existing x86 systems.
The only example that've heard that makes any sense, is using linux to extend the cabilities of Mainframe OS's (i.e. using linux, to run apache to create on-line reports, replacing printouts).
Outstanding Linux Kernel Issues (Score:5, Interesting)
[1] Rik van Riel VM (RMAP) or Andrea Arcangeli VM?
[2] Is a new kernel build system needed for the linux kernel?
[3] Modules/InitRAMFS or regular ol' monolithic kernel?
[4] Which journaling file system does IBM see becoming the de facto journaling file system for Linux? In other words, what's so cool about JFS
I apologize for sneaking in a few too many questions.
Inter-Company Cooperation (Score:5, Interesting)
Other commercial organizations, notably SGI, are also putting forth effort in those areas. There is actually quite a bit of overlap.
Since these are "open source" projects, do you collaborate with your traditional "enemies" such as SGI and Sun on Linux? What is your management's attitude towards that type of collaboration? If not, do you "look" at the work the others are doing in comparison to what you are doing?
Layoffs (Score:3, Interesting)
Benefits from your work to the x86 architecture (Score:4, Interesting)
In other words, what are the areas of the Kernel where IBM invested resources that x86-based machines will benefit from, in terms of performance, scalability, robustness, etc.?
Attitude, Experience and Environment (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:OS Blending (Score:5, Interesting)
JFS and LVM further integration a la AIX (Score:1, Interesting)
Also while we are on the topic of filesystems, how about adding ACL support to Linux JFS like the sgi's XFS has... so that we can have huge globs of JFS space exported via Samba to Windoze client workstations and have all the NT security (right-click menu stuff) work seemlessly so we can rid ourselves completely of NT fileservers.
IBM, Employment, and the Linux community. (Score:3, Interesting)
Why isn't IBM making more of an effort to recruit developers directly from the Linux community, as opposed to hiring people who have very little if any working familliarity with the platform?
Speaking from experience (I worked at Big Blue for about 2 years), the typical new-hire at IBM knows very little about Unix and other core technologies that form the foundation of your company, and its products...I can name several that didn't even know what a network card was, who gained full-time positions as regulars within the company while top-level engineers and other knowledgable employees were getting pink slipped for cost reductions.
There are employees at IBM who are just now learning what a network card is, while thousands of seasoned Linux developers go unemployed.
What does IBM plan to do about the experience gap within the company?
Re:IBM support for Linux (Score:2, Interesting)
My question is
To you think IBM will support Linux in an broad manner instead of only on there aging Mainframe ?
Linux it's not only the kernel, it also the GNU movement and it's also a lot of individual who program it, and program application for it and use it.
When a company claim to support Linux and in fact they only use it to promote they older and desuet platform, it's a really bad move for my opinion.
history of linux? (Score:2, Interesting)
Leveraging IBM's weight in the desktop struggle (Score:2, Interesting)
IBMer question (Score:4, Interesting)
As an IBMer with a thinkpad, I'd like to ask a very straightforward, down to business question.
When will I have Linux running on my Thinkpad, supporting my internal IBM needs?
Seems to me that there will be some initial development cost, perhaps a bit of training, but in the end, a Linux machine would be more easily maintianed. Between exporting xterms, allowing support to telnet or ssh in and needing to be root to really screw stuff up, I think there's a great deal of leverage there. I've looked into the C4EB (Client for E-Business, for those not in IBM speak) stuff, but I can't find out how to run my Lotus 1-2-3, Wordpro, Freelance, etc. (including secure tunneling aka working from home) without kludging it. Certainly, it's fit for some needs, but my job places me in a less flexible position.
My background: I'm a hardware engineer, been playing with Linux since Slackware 96 (in 1996) as a user and admin. I won't allow an unsupported distribution, like Debian or Slackware, to touch my machine, as so many IBM specific things make assumptions.
How about a CD (or 4) that I could boot to that could 1) shrink my Win2k partition 2) set aside my hibernate partition so hibernating will stop blowing away my Linux partition 3) install Linux, Gnome or KDE, Wine and integrate Lotus 1-2-3, Wordpro and Freelance. Sure, I could do this on my own, investing the weeks or months that I had when I was a student, but I'm married now and my management won't support a hardware engineer playing with software on that level.
I think it'd be sweet to be able to hit a shortcut that would export to a bot, signal a telnet or whatever, so an automated script could diagnose simple problems and queue for human review if necessary.
Linux Security Certification (Score:3, Interesting)
groups, does IBM have any plans to work with Red Hat
for A NIAP Common Criteria evaluation (making it hunky-dory, from a security perspective to use Linux.) How about FIPS 140-2 for the IBM-Linux crypto cards?
Working on top of a VM (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:The Open Source == Open Standards model (Score:1, Interesting)
It's not just the services aspect that's important, though that's where the actual money is. The strategic importance of Linux to IBM is hard to underestimate, simply because none of IBM's competition can take advantage of Linux the way IBM can. Having a commodity OS with open specifications, and one that works as well as Linux does, can do no harm to IBM but can hurt its various competitors. Linux is everything that OS/2 wanted to be, and more (strategically). In other words, aside from the advantages it affords, Linux is great for IBM because it doesn't destabilize IBM - it provides the missing link.
posting anonymously to keep my job