Fai on Ubuntu 9.10 status?

[Henning Sprang]

Robert Markula wrote:
> Well, I'm not an evangelist of any specific software or platform. Any
> software is just a tool to get work done, and I like good tools, that's
> why I like FAI - because it is one of those proven, reliable tools that
> tremendously speeds up my work and simplifies many things.

Sure, that's O.k. - sorry if I sounded like offending you for this!
That was totally not my intention.

Pure config management solutions like cfengine and puppet are very
attractive. They are available on many distributions and other OS'es,
powerful and proven in large infrastructures. They even have nice logos
and websites.

> As I see it this discussion is happening at two fronts: first the
> political front if it was right to remove FAI from the Ubuntu
> repositories (I'm affected by this as well) and how to deal with the
> situation in the future.

Yes, obviously, I got myself in some kind of fight about this.
It's just that I have the feeling, that the number of people using FAI
for softupdates - and in part only for softupdates - is ignored.

With the removal decision FAI gives away the potential for larger
adoption - despite it is perfectly useable for config management on many
distributions - even when installation functionality does not work (and
even therefore there was a good workaround documented by you!).

Especially in times of virtualization you often don't need installation
at all. Many root-servers come with a pre-deployed base system. They
don't need installation. But they do need config management. And a
growing number of them is running Ubuntu.

> The other front is to help Per and others to get their systems running
> in a way that they can maintain his clients _now_

The simplest solution would have been, not remove FAI from Ubuntu
because softupdates where working well :)

But yes, you're proposals are helpful, too!

I just feel a bit sad when we have to send people away...

Henning