The Software RAID Inflection Point
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By 2015, corporate is now 80% of the Linux kernel development. Here is the latest contributions list: The Top 10 organizations sponsoring Linux kernel development since the last report include Intel, Red Hat, Linaro, Samsung, IBM, SUSE, Texas Instruments, Vision Engraving Systems, Google and Renesas.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
@Dashrender said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
While your statement doesn't imply that the MD versions are different, it does lead one who's not knowledgeable to a false conclusion that each Linux distro (at least the base distros) are maintaining their own version of MD.
Why would it lead someone to that? There is only one Linux kernel, where would different versions come from and where was that implied?
You said it's supported by the OS vendors - since so many other OS vendors don't work together, why would I assume they would be working together.
A better response originally from you which would have stopped this whole thread of conversation would have been to say - it's supported by many OS vendors through their cooperative work on the kernel, where MD is supported natively now. or some such statement. Instead we're 30 posts later and only now getting that specific knowledge from probing questions, where the probes are made out to appear like ludicrous considerations.
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@Dashrender said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
You said it's supported by the OS vendors - since so many other OS vendors don't work together, why would I assume they would be working together.
Because we are talking about a single thing that they work together on. Shared projects exist everywhere from childhood through university to the professional world. We are talking about the MD product, no matter how many people work on it or where they come from, that doesn't imply and should not lead someone to think that each person helping is then making their own product. We have a thousand contributors to MangoLassi, but no one assumes that there are one thousand different communities. What makes MD a special case?
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@Dashrender said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
A better response originally from you which would have stopped this whole thread of conversation would have been to say - it's supported by many OS vendors through their cooperative work on the kernel, where MD is supported natively now. or some such statement. Instead we're 30 posts later and only now getting that specific knowledge from probing questions, where the probes are made out to appear like ludicrous considerations.
Or just accept simple answers and not inject unimplied assumptions. Since I had no idea that such an assumption would be brought to the table, it is very difficult to head it off at the pass. Of course if I could guess what people will randomly assume and correct it before it is assumed, I could make things simple. But there was nothing implying that assumption, so I had no reason to think that I needed to explain it.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
@Dashrender said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
You said it's supported by the OS vendors - since so many other OS vendors don't work together, why would I assume they would be working together.
Because we are talking about a single thing that they work together on. Shared projects exist everywhere from childhood through university to the professional world. We are talking about the MD product, no matter how many people work on it or where they come from, that doesn't imply and should not lead someone to think that each person helping is then making their own product. We have a thousand contributors to MangoLassi, but no one assumes that there are one thousand different communities. What makes MD a special case?
Because @Dashrender wasn't aware of how it worked. I can totally see how someone could be very confused if they are not familiar with the Linux ecosystem.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
@Dashrender said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
Basically what I was trying to determine, is MD pretty much the same across all distros of Linux?
Linux is Linux, MD is just part of it. There is one Linux kernel, one MD. Where is the idea that there are different Linux or MD or other components coming from? Honest question, what makes the assumption that a singular thing would naturally vary, happen? I saw nothing that would have led someone to think that, so I'm lost.
Because while Linux is Linux, one distro is not the same as the next. And as I finally grasp, distros of Linux in some cases might as well be as different as Windows vs Mac (OK that's probably a bit far, because they don't share the same kernel, but I'm going for an over top example).
If I don't know what's in the kernel - and why would I assume, as a non Linux guy, that MD is in the kernel, why would assume MD would be in every distro of Linux?
Just like normal, those that don't know Linux at all are often made to feel like idiots because we don't know/understand what goes where, what's including in every Linux distro, what's not, why one shell is here and a different one is there, etc.
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Think about the AirBus 320. It was designed and made by one German and one French company (primarily.) Yet no one assumes that the two companies made two different products that only shared the name "AirBus". That the project was a collaboration and that the result was a single product (we only mentioned the one) there is every implication that there is just one thing being discussed and no reason to think that the collaboration was actually to make competing products.
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@travisdh1 said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
@scottalanmiller said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
@Dashrender said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
You said it's supported by the OS vendors - since so many other OS vendors don't work together, why would I assume they would be working together.
Because we are talking about a single thing that they work together on. Shared projects exist everywhere from childhood through university to the professional world. We are talking about the MD product, no matter how many people work on it or where they come from, that doesn't imply and should not lead someone to think that each person helping is then making their own product. We have a thousand contributors to MangoLassi, but no one assumes that there are one thousand different communities. What makes MD a special case?
Because @Dashrender wasn't aware of how it worked. I can totally see how someone could be very confused if they are not familiar with the Linux ecosystem.
Even if you don't know it is Linux and assume it is something totally different, there is just the one product being discussed, though. Even if this was closed source and made by Microsoft and Oracle we'd still assume collaboration since only one product was the result.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
@Dashrender said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
You said it's supported by the OS vendors - since so many other OS vendors don't work together, why would I assume they would be working together.
Because we are talking about a single thing that they work together on. Shared projects exist everywhere from childhood through university to the professional world. We are talking about the MD product, no matter how many people work on it or where they come from, that doesn't imply and should not lead someone to think that each person helping is then making their own product. We have a thousand contributors to MangoLassi, but no one assumes that there are one thousand different communities. What makes MD a special case?
Sure, see - now you're making an assumption that MD is understood by the masses (I'll even limit that to the IT masses) that it's a thing like the kernel - that there is only one. Why should I assume there is only one MD where there are dozens of shells? To me that is fraking crazy - one shell to rule them all, please and thank you!
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@Dashrender said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
If I don't know what's in the kernel - and why would I assume, as a non Linux guy, that MD is in the kernel, why would assume MD would be in every distro of Linux?
You wouldn't assume that it is in the kernel, but that's not important. That it is part of Linux or its own project, doesn't matter. It's one thing. There are tons of things on Linux distros (and on all software) that are third party. MD might be in some distros and not others, but when it exists, it is MD, not some random thing called MD.
Does that make sense? We are talking about one thing, not a generic name.
Think about the glances command. Some distros have it, some do not. But there is only one glances and it is not made by Linux in any way.
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@Dashrender said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
Just like normal, those that don't know Linux at all are often made to feel like idiots because we don't know/understand what goes where, what's including in every Linux distro, what's not, why one shell is here and a different one is there, etc.
This has nothing to do with Linux itself. Like with many discussions, someone hears Linux and starts adding random assumptions, including that it is somehow Linux making things confusing. But it is not. While MD is part of Linux, it didn't used to be and when it wasn't, it changed nothing.
Think about Notepad++. It is not part of Windows. If we were discussing Notepad++ every bit of this discussion would be the same. Except there wouldn't be the "Linux excuse" for injecting some random bit of assumption based on nothing that was said and then stating that Linux makes you feel foolish. You are using Linux as an excuse. I wasn't talking about Linux and nothing I said depended on it. That it was brought up was unnecessary additional information.
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@Dashrender said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
@scottalanmiller said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
@Dashrender said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
You said it's supported by the OS vendors - since so many other OS vendors don't work together, why would I assume they would be working together.
Because we are talking about a single thing that they work together on. Shared projects exist everywhere from childhood through university to the professional world. We are talking about the MD product, no matter how many people work on it or where they come from, that doesn't imply and should not lead someone to think that each person helping is then making their own product. We have a thousand contributors to MangoLassi, but no one assumes that there are one thousand different communities. What makes MD a special case?
Sure, see - now you're making an assumption that MD is understood by the masses (I'll even limit that to the IT masses) that it's a thing like the kernel - that there is only one. Why should I assume there is only one MD where there are dozens of shells? To me that is fraking crazy - one shell to rule them all, please and thank you!
Because you know that "a shell" is a category of things and PowerShell is one of those shells. So you know through simple English that there are lots of shells and that there are then specific products that are shells (PowerShell, CMD, BASH, etc.)
MD you know is a specific software RAID. Software RAID is the generic category, MD is one product that is software RAID.
Proper names vs. descriptive categories.
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@Dashrender said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
To me that is fraking crazy - one shell to rule them all, please and thank you!
That's blasphemy from Windows people. You have three main shells there. At least on each Linux distro there is only one core one (for servers at least.)
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@Dashrender said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
Because while Linux is Linux, one distro is not the same as the next. And as I finally grasp, distros of Linux in some cases might as well be as different as Windows vs Mac (OK that's probably a bit far, because they don't share the same kernel, but I'm going for an over top example).
Actually Linux can vary more, not less, IMHO. The Linux that runs in a microwave oven to the Linux on a smartphone to Linux on a server to Linux on a desktop is a range that you really don't see between Windows and Mac. Linux is only the kernel but is used in so many places for so many different things. Sure the kernel is always the kernel, but that's so tiny in comparison to the OS. Even just Android and Fedora are so wildly different.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
Think about the AirBus 320. It was designed and made by one German and one French company (primarily.) Yet no one assumes that the two companies made two different products that only shared the name "AirBus". That the project was a collaboration and that the result was a single product (we only mentioned the one) there is every implication that there is just one thing being discussed and no reason to think that the collaboration was actually to make competing products.
OK I'm starting to see where you are going with this. A single name to you implies single product - and typically I agree - but again, a complete lack of understanding of the Linux something or other just makes it really difficult for me to follow/understand the rules.
I also know where broken path came from - we're talking about RAID vs MD - RAID is generic, it's not owned by anyone specific (maybe some standards body) but it's generic. I made an assumption, because RAID is generic that MD was also generic. OK clearly that's not the case. But see that's the kind of problems myself and others run into all the time in Linux. What's a brand name versus a concept? When we talk about a desktop in Windows, we are talking 99.9% of the time about explorer.exe, but in Linux, it could be anything, there are dozens, probably hundreds or even thousands of GUIs for Linux.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
@travisdh1 said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
@scottalanmiller said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
@Dashrender said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
You said it's supported by the OS vendors - since so many other OS vendors don't work together, why would I assume they would be working together.
Because we are talking about a single thing that they work together on. Shared projects exist everywhere from childhood through university to the professional world. We are talking about the MD product, no matter how many people work on it or where they come from, that doesn't imply and should not lead someone to think that each person helping is then making their own product. We have a thousand contributors to MangoLassi, but no one assumes that there are one thousand different communities. What makes MD a special case?
Because @Dashrender wasn't aware of how it worked. I can totally see how someone could be very confused if they are not familiar with the Linux ecosystem.
Even if you don't know it is Linux and assume it is something totally different, there is just the one product being discussed, though. Even if this was closed source and made by Microsoft and Oracle we'd still assume collaboration since only one product was the result.
Just to pull a little piece from my larger post - We are comparing RAID something generic to MD - which I know now is a specific product/software solution. This was a huge root of my misunderstanding.
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@Dashrender said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
OK I'm starting to see where you are going with this. A single name to you implies single product - and typically I agree - but again, a complete lack of understanding of the Linux something or other just makes it really difficult for me to follow/understand the rules.
But it's the same on Windows. Linux has nothing to do with this, that MD is now inside of Linux is coincidence. It didn't have any effect on the conversation and isn't important. If you stop thinking of Linux as a special case and treat it like any other normal product, all of the confusion stops. It's only by assuming that Linux has special rules or is different does it get confusing.
If this conversation was about NTKernel and Windows Software RAID nothing would change.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
MD you know is a specific software RAID.
No, but I didn't know that.
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@Dashrender said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
When we talk about a desktop in Windows, we are talking 99.9% of the time about explorer.exe, but in Linux, it could be anything, there are dozens, probably hundreds or even thousands of GUIs for Linux.
Well when do you deal with GUIs? Where do these problems come from? Windows has three shells. Yes, most Linux distros have more, but for real work, most Linux has fewer, not more.
Nearly everything for Linux is also on Windows. The two are not different like is imagined.
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@scottalanmiller said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
@Dashrender said in The Software RAID Inflection Point:
OK I'm starting to see where you are going with this. A single name to you implies single product - and typically I agree - but again, a complete lack of understanding of the Linux something or other just makes it really difficult for me to follow/understand the rules.
But it's the same on Windows. Linux has nothing to do with this, that MD is now inside of Linux is coincidence. It didn't have any effect on the conversation and isn't important. If you stop thinking of Linux as a special case and treat it like any other normal product, all of the confusion stops. It's only by assuming that Linux has special rules or is different does it get confusing.
If this conversation was about NTKernel and Windows Software RAID nothing would change.
I'll stop blaming Linux in this case - and say I didn't know MD was a product, knowing that it's a single thing, supported by a specific group for use where ever they allow it's use, OK I go it now.
