After 2 Years of Development, LTSP 5.2 Is Out 79
The Linux Terminal Server Project has for years been simplifying the task of time-sharing a Linux system by means of X terminals (including repurposed low-end PCs). Now, stgraber writes "After almost two years or work and 994 commits later made by only 14 contributors, the LTSP team is proud to announce that the Linux Terminal Server Project released LTSP 5.2 on Wednesday the 17th of February. As the LTSP team wanted this release to be some kind of a reference point in LTSP's history, LDM (LTSP Display Manager) 2.1 and LTSPfs 0.6 were released on the same day. Packages for LTSP 5.2, LDM 2.1 and LTSPfs 0.6 are already in Ubuntu Lucid and a backport for Karmic is available. For other distributions, packages should be available very soon. And the upstream code is, as always, available on Launchpad."
Re:Only 994 commits in 2 years by 14 people? (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe they check their work before they commit it. ;)
On the serious side, I doubt most of them were working on this full time. You may look at it more like this: every 10 days, they had time to actually commit something they were working on while working on other [I presume?] full time jobs?
Re:Only 994 commits in 2 years by 14 people? (Score:3, Insightful)
After almost two years or work and 994 commits later made by only 14 contributors, the LTSP team is proud to announce that the Linux Terminal Server Project project released LTSP 5.2 on Wednesday the 17th of February.
That's about one commit per 10 days per person. Is this sort of number normal in the open source scene? It seems very low to me.
They are probably using something old fashioned like CVS where all commits are globally visible and nobody can commit anything which might possibly break a branch. In mercurial I tend to commit every time I make a change and then collapse commits into logical patches before I push upstream.
Re:Only 994 commits in 2 years by 14 people? (Score:3, Insightful)
That's about one commit per 10 days per person. Is this sort of number normal in the open source scene? It seems very low to me.
It depends on the size of the average commit. If most of them are small changes to single files then yes this is probably slow. But if a developer is working on a complex change then an individual commit could represent a significant number of man-hours developing, unit testing and regression testing before the commit. This is especially true if they are using some form of distributed source control whereby said developer has a local repository to keep inter-commit changes tracked in or if they are using a branch+merge arrangement (so the developer commits partial changes to a "personal" dev branch) and they are only counting commits/merges to the main branch/trunck in the above count.
Re:Only 994 commits in 2 years by 14 people? (Score:4, Insightful)
Hello there ye from the realm of outdated misconceptions. Who told you terminal servers were slow? A few years ago, I set up a 20-seat Linux terminal server network. One terminal server (which was about as powerful as a high-end desktop machine at the time) was enough to handle all of the clients simultaneously and not break a sweat. We're talking P2-era technology on the client side. Each desktop was just as responsive as if the input devices were connected directly to the server itself. I talked to more than one person who absolutely could not believe that the applications they were using were actually being run on another machine over the network.
Strawman argument, nobody said either of those things. Even if they were true, the point is moot. LTSP-enabled distributions provide complete Linux desktop environments. You get sound, access to local devices, and all of the applications that run on Linux. About the only applications I wouldn't recommend for terminal servers would be those with demanding video requirements like 3D games, CAD, and video editing.
In a previous job, our whole office ran off a terminal server and it worked great for years. I did system administration and web development, never had a single task that the setup couldn't handle. We even ran dual-screen on the thin clients and never had a problem.
Be sure you count yourself in that 95%.