[Infrastructures] using IA methodologies to build network element configuration

[Andrew Piskorski]

On Tue, Mar 29, 2005 at 12:32:58PM -0800, Kysh wrote:
> Same goes for any production boxes I run. Bare necessities and that's
> it.
> 
> 'Nifty' has no place in the datacenter. 

I suspect you folks are confused about what Joel really wants, even if
he didn't say it precisely.

Consider the humble Linksys WRT54G.  This $60 router *IS* runnning a
"full-featured OS" - Linux.  Yes, it is a rather stripped down version
of Linux, which is necessary given its minimal hardware.  However,
lots of people have already hacked on its Linux firmware to fix bugs,
add VPNs, ssh, etc. support - in general make it work better FOR THEM.

If that Linksys box was just a bit beefier, it would probably be
reasonable to run the Click modular (and Open Source) router on it:

  http://pdos.lcs.mit.edu/click/
  http://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=120950

And obviously, enterprises heavy with networking gurus, like Level 3
Communications, would quite likely be willing even to completely
mantain their own forked Linux-on-routers OS, ** IF ** doing so
provided a compelling advantage to them.  And from the previous, it's
already easy to guess that it might.

So, when Joel H. said "full featured OS", replace with "Open Source
OS", and I think you may come closer to what he was really trying to
get at.

-- 
Andrew Piskorski <atp@piskorski.com>
http://www.piskorski.com/