Announcement: lunar/sourcemage merge

[Auke Kok]

Contacts:
   Auke Kok      /  sofar at lunar-linux.org     /  Lunar-Linux
   Eric Sandall  /  sandalle at sourcemage.org   /  SourceMage GNU/Linux


Corresponding SourceMage press release:
[0] http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/sm-discuss/2005-April/010272.html

--- Press Release ---

Rotterdam, The Netherlands, In light of a post on the Source Mage GNU/Linux
forums[0] a month ago, Auke Kok (Lunar-Linux) and Eric Sandall (Source Mage
GNU/Linux) started a private discussion detailing how the two projects 
might
merge their talents to form a larger and more productive project, currently
code-named SourceMerge GNU/Linux.

Auke and Eric feel that, with the combined developers, packages, and 
ideas of
the two projects SourceMerge can easily come to the forefront again in the
arena of source-based packages and regain a position in the Top 10 of all
Linux distributions.

Auke Kok said, "The reduction of overhead is immense, and we can now
start to focus on putting manpower where it is needed most, instead of
fixing the same problems two times."

The two distributions forked from Sorcerer GNU/Linux in early 2002 after
personal insights caused a group of people to fork from the original 
Sorcerer
GNU Linux, as they wanted to take the project into a radical direction that
caused the group to fall apart. Three new Source distributions were created
that all were founded on the same concepts, but have since diverted and 
made
the Source Distribution land a dangerous place.

Auke Kok: "We realise that some major probems will need to be solved
still, but we have an agreement that solves the largest problems. We
feel confident that with the changes proposed, we can make the three
groups give the sacrifices in order to get ahead and win bigtime."

Those sacrifices will include some critical changes. The Lunar-Linux
people will lose the typical command names they have been used to. But
the codebase from SourceMage will largely be lost as the Lunar codebase
will become the basis of future development. However, the License will
be a variation to the Sorcerer Public License, to accomodate some of the
incompatibilites that the merger creates. Together, the three
distributions will offer more than 5300 unique packages, the three
maintainers have calculated. This is 20% more than gentoo's port

The current layout for SourceMerge is as follows:
 * Package manager: Source Mage/GNU Linux's Sorcery with features added 
from
   Lunar-Linux's TheEdge.
 * Package list: A merging of Lunar's Moonbase and SourceMage's 
Grimoires to
   populate a database with over 5,300 unique packages; 20% more than 
Gentoo's
   current package list.
 * Project Lead: Auke Kok with Eric Sandall as his Assistant Lead
 * Project Developers: All developers from both projects will be asked 
to join
   the new project and accept reassignments to sections and teams within
   SourceMerge.

Eric Sandall commented, "At first, we realized that we would not have 
enough
manpower to merge the two groups into one single organized group. But
after talks with BitMover, Inc. about the codebase problem, BitMover
proposed to provide the combined group with free BitKeeper solutions to
manage the large task of merging in three years of code changes.
BitKeeper will provide us with a tremendous tool that can scale to the
heights we need, after all our package databases see more commits then
the 2.6 kernel tree."

The merge is planned to take place in the summer of this year, and a
first release is planned for 01/04/2006. Eric Sandall says, "We realise 
this
change will be of huge impact, and we're willing to put a lot of time in
it. We really needed to work behind the scenes to decently prepare a move
of this magnitude." Auke Kok adds, "The long period is really needed. In 
the
meantime the joint codebase will become available piece by piece, and we
hope to get out test releases this summer. The first release will
probably be SourceMerge GNU/Linux 0.1, released July 1st."

Eric and Auke ask all developers to join on freenode channel
#sourcemerge, a newly created IRC channel to discuss the details on this
merger. Interested users are also welcome. We ask everyone to stay tuned
to later press releases in which more details will be explained.

Pullman, WA, USA / Eric Sandall
Rotterdam, The Netherlands / Auke Kok

[0] http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/sm-discuss/2005-April/010272.html
[1] http://forums.sourcemage.org/viewtopic.php?t=851
[2] http://lunar-linux.org/?q=node/view/741