Fwd: Re: Regarding the Future of ELKS

[Syed Faisal Akber <faisal.akber@utoronto.ca>]

Jody,

Thank you for reviving this list.

Here are my current thoughts on this project:
1 - Last build that I used (years ago) worked just fine on a 80286.
Most of the userland was working well too.
2 - This varient of Linux is unique to 80(2)86 and unless someone is
willing to integrate the work done here into something like uClinux,
we should keep it as is and continue the effort with this project.
3 - Do we have a list of current things that need to be done?  If so,
let's prioritize them, and maybe some of us can find the time to put
some effort into it.
4 - The toolchain is a bit of a sore-spot for some.  However, I don't
think it is that bad that we need to move away from working on this
project.

Anyways, that's my 2 cents (CDN) worth.

73,
Faisal

Quoting Jody <jbruchon@nc.rr.com>:

> Hello everyone.  This is Jody, the current maintainer of the ELKS
> project.  I wanted to ask for everyone's opinion on what the future of
> ELKS should be.
>
> I can see many compelling reasons to drop ELKS entirely or shift it
> away from the 80(2)86-oriented platform, including the following:
>
> * No one works on ELKS.  Really.  I'm no C programmer, and apparently
> all the ones that COULD work on it have moved on to "bigger better
> things" in their lives.
>
> * 8086/80286 cores are being dropped in favor of other platforms,
> including ARM, 386EX, Coldfire, etc.  While embedded Linux covers a lot
> of that territory, there is certainly some room for discussion of
> changing ELKS to be more portable and pushing it to those platforms.
> The minimalist approach to the ELKS kernel would make it far smaller
> than Linux and it could potentially compete with the likes of other
> smaller operating systems used in embedded applications, such as
> VxWorks.
>
> * ELKS has not developed to a very "usable" stage yet.  There are a
> hundred different ways the project could go, but the original stated
> goals are quickly showing that they are not it.  Lack of interest in
> the project and limited ability to reuse the code are clear signs that
> something must change.
>
> To those of you who are still subscribed to this list: what do you
> think should be done?  I look forward to hearing your answers!
>
> ~Jody
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-8086" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html




----- End forwarded message -----