Bulk build speed stats

I recently did a bulk build of pkgsrc on two similar machines; the only significant difference being extra CPU work being done on one system, and Hammer snapshots on the other.  However, they’re diverging in speed over time, which is interesting but not yet conclusive.  Read my post about it for more details.

A good benchmarking project would be testing Hammer with snapshots on and with snapshots off.

Upcoming pkgsrc freeze; new binaries now

The freeze for pkgsrc’s 2009Q2 release starts this Sunday, the 14th.   The 2009Q2 release should follow two weeks afterwards, which will be very close to the time of the next planned DragonFly release.  (2.4, in case you weren’t counting.)

I’ve just finished a new build of the 2009Q1 packages for DragonFly 2.2, and it’s available on http://avalon.dragonflybsd.org/packages – setting BINPKG_SITES or using pkg_chk can get you these latest versions.

I plan to have a 2009Q2 package set for DragonFly 2.4 as soon as possible after release.

License reading

Here’s some lazy Sunday reading about software licenses.  Before you panic and quickly click away to something more fun, these are not flamewars.

This InformIT interview with David Chisnall of Étoilé talks about various things, but has an interesting note about BSD code and Apple about halfway down.

I think this is a much better way of encouraging corporate involvement in open source than legal bludgeons like the GPL. The BSD license is easy for even a non-lawyer to read and understand, so there is no confusion when using BSD-licensed code.

I’m thinking about this because there are people who still can’t figure out the difference.

Along the same lines, I was surprised by the number of open source programs found just by license listing in the new Palm Pre.  I wish I had a spare $200.

Wandering even farther off topic, is Étoilé what Windowmaker should have evolved into?

GSoC 2009: so far for devfs and AMD64

Alex Hornung posted a summary of how his work on devfs is going, and Jordan Gordeev posted a summary of how much AMD64 is functional.

If you want to try either one (warning: many parts still broken!), use a vkernel for the devfs so a physical system doesn’t get broken.  There’s build instructions for pulling together AMD64 DragonFly.

Update: manual instructions for AMD64, too.

More roguelikes: @Play and a new game

Not one, but two roguelike items!  Close your eyes and click randomly if you have no interest in my little obsession.

  • The newest @Play column has more 7DRL coverage, with screenshots and nice little summaries that mention whether a game is fair or not.
  • Also at GameSetWatch, mention of a new roguelike called MnemonicRL, with a video preview.  It’s planned to be a MMORPG, of all things.
More media reading

I linked to articles from last week’s issue of the Economist before, but now that I made it to the other end of the magazine, there’s another one of interest that doesn’t mention open source but still relates to it: An article on intellectual property that covers how to handle antitrust legislation and companies where the property is mostly virtual.  Useful to anyone who has dealt with the GPL and/or Microsoft.  (i.e. everyone)

Also, not really open source related, but computer games can be good for you.  I really like this magazine – not because I agree with them, but because they at least examine things in depth, and avoid the usual computing blunders you see in print.

If you don’t want to read the whole magazine yourself, there’s a nice summary available.  (that link covers the previous week; recap of this issue possibly this weekend.