From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "Atchley, Scott" Subject: Re: RDMA developer gatherings around Kernel Summit and Linux Plumbers in Santa Fe Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2016 13:02:38 +0000 Message-ID: References: <20161004124513.GA12483@infradead.org> <7BAAE610-98A0-47FC-993B-77401AA32F4A@ornl.gov> <20161005083218.GA16922@infradead.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Return-path: In-Reply-To: <20161005083218.GA16922-wEGCiKHe2LqWVfeAwA7xHQ@public.gmane.org> Content-Language: en-US Content-ID: <793F644F7AA42A43BA2C1D089FD7F60F-1Heg1YXhbW8@public.gmane.org> Sender: linux-rdma-owner-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public.gmane.org To: Christoph Hellwig Cc: Christoph Lameter , Linux RDMA Mailing List , "ira.weiny-ral2JQCrhuEAvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org" , Jason Gunthorpe , "john.fleck-ral2JQCrhuEAvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org" , "leon-DgEjT+Ai2ygdnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org" , Doug Ledford , "Coulter, Susan K" , "shewa-YOWKrPYUwWM@public.gmane.org" List-Id: linux-rdma@vger.kernel.org > On Oct 5, 2016, at 4:32 AM, Christoph Hellwig wrote: >=20 > Could someone elaborate what the OFA position is? Right now the only > thing I know is that they are a) forcing their members to Dual license > code nd have b) some sort of weird idea that they could also force this > on others in some way. Although I am sitting on the OFA board as the representative of my organiza= tion, I do not speak for the OFA. These are my observations: 1. The OFA is an organization to promote the standardization of alternative= network technologies. Prior to the OFA, vendors created specialized hardwa= re with specialized software stacks tailored to HPC. Examples include QSnet= /Quadrics, GM/Myrinet MX/Myrinet, Cray Portals/SeaStar, Cray GNI/Gemini/Ari= es, IBM BG[LPQ], etc. The OFA evolved from the InfiniBand/Verbs trade group= in order to promote additional technologies (e.g. iWarp, RoCE, PSM, etc). 2. The OFA organization, made up of various members, has rules to govern it= self. Most members are also competitors. They cooperate on standards becaus= e everyone benefits by avoiding the fragmentation of the prior state of aff= airs (see item 1). Because they are competitors, changes are difficult and/= or slow because people have to build consensus. Other members are consumers= , for example the organization I represent, and we want standards and compe= tition. The former allows us to get better products from the latter. 3. The members that contribute the most to the OFA in terms of money, staff= time, and code are the vendors. They wrote much of the code that was contr= ibuted and they chose dual license, as is their right. I assume (because I = do not know) that they did so to avoid writing two (or three) stacks for Li= nux and non-Linux environments. 4. OFA has a rule that code developed on its behalf be dual-license. They d= o not _force_ this on members because members decided this or they joined k= nowing that this was the rule. OFA cannot force anyone to join so therefore= they cannot force anyone to adopt a dual-license. As mentioned in item 2, = OFA members can modify their rules via an established process. If you want = to change the rule, join OFA and convince the members. 5. The only one in this thread trying to force a license of others is not t= he OFA. > I personally think that a) is not helpful to the adoption of RDMA > technologies in Linux, and that b) is obviously a complete non-started > as confirmed multiple times, which isn't just my own opinion. If one is not a member, the OFA cannot force anything. I do not see dual-li= cense as a hindrance to Linux kernel use or adoption. Perhaps you can help = me understand better. > Based on that I really don't understand what the point of this > discussion is, unless OFA really needs help with an internal discussion > to get rid of a). If Christoph really wants me to help with a) please > do it during Plumbers as I won't be around on Saturday. -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-rdma" in the body of a message to majordomo-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public.gmane.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html