...Those That Help Themselves

[Thomas Midgley]

William_Setzer@ncsu.edu writes:

  >After our own bad experience, reading the number of horror stories

>      >being posted to these lists, and hearing from other Universities
 with
 >similar tales, it has become fairly clear that IBM doesn't really care
 >about AFS, and we are unlikely to see things getting better.  This is
 >a big problem for NCSU, as AFS is a core component of making our
 >academic environment work, and there's really nothing available with
 >which to replace it.  I am certain that many of you are in the same
 >boat.
     > etc...

One possible venue to voice your concerns about the future of OpenAFS is at
the USENIX conference in June.  There's going
to be an "AFS Workshop".  For more details see:
http://www.usenix.org/events/usenix01/activities.html

For those of you who can't attend, perhaps you can still voice your
concerns or recommend a topic for conversation to the
moderator of the workshop (e-mail addr listed on web page).

By this posting I don't pretend to speak in any official capacity for IBM,
but as a fellow AFS admin who also is concerned about
the future of AFS.  One personal opinion I'll share - in order to ensure
the future viability of AFS, people have to support OpenAFS
in some capacity, such as by supplying manpower, as you suggested. Like
Linux, if the support is there, it'll flourish.

(If I see you at USENIX I'll share some of my other personal opinions at
cocktail hour ;-)

Cheers,
Tom Midgley
IBM Global Services, Service Delivery Center - Northeast
UNIX Systems Support, AFS/DCE Team Leader

Poughkeepsie, NY  USA
(845) 435-5804 (tie 295)
"The fact that an opinion is widely held is certainly no evidence that

it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of millions of
mankind, a widespread belief may be more foolish than sensible."
 -- Bertrand Russell