2010/10/30 Siddhesh Poyarekar siddhesh.poyarekar@gmail.com:
You either did not understand or conveniently decided to ignore the point I was trying to make. Just because Mr Saraswat has accomplished great feats in the field of missile technology, it does not mean that he has a clue in the field of Operating Systems and computing.
If this were the point you were trying to make, say it in so many words. Why drag your dentist into this??
Anyway, the fact that Dr. Saraswat has great feats in the field of missile technology certainly entitles him to head an organization like DRDO. Go back and read the post I was responding to (which claimed he is a clueless dingbat not fit to head the DRDO) - I found it highly offensive that a well-respected and well-decorated senior scientist heading a research organization called unfit to head the said organization because he initiated a project whose details are not available in public and does not appear to fit someone's preconceived notions.
that Mr. Saraswat is going to head this. The reason Mr. Saraswat is a man without a clue is because he has not shown himself as having any clue how operating systems (or any other critical software) development works. That is why he is making statements claiming that
He needn't have a clue in OS development. The clue should be with the team (and its head) he's going to assemble to build this system. You are not seriously assuming Dr. Saraswat's going to project-manage this thing, are you?
And the key thing about SELinux is that it is open source, there were no fat claims before even putting out a prototype and that it was developed in a department of the US DoD that is known for its computing prowess, the NSA and hence would obviously have been headed by someone who has a clue about how software development works. All of this is exactly the opposite of the scenario with the DoD.
1. SELinux was not open source from day one. The NSA released it under GPL in 2000 after it was under development for years (its history goes back to 1992).
2. The then head of NSA was this chap: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hayden - I don't see him as an expert in software development.
3. I don't know if all of this is "exactly opposite" of the scenario with the DRDO. I recall in my undergrad days [mid-nineties], we had projects sponsored by DRDO which did cutting-edge research in various computer-related fields (though not OS research, I admit). I myself was fortunate enough to work on one of them.
4. Lastly, DRDO is not only about missiles and such - they do have several labs focusing on areas like AI, Robotics, electronics, supercomputing and a bunch of other technologies. Example: http://www.drdo.gov.in/drdo/labs/ANURAG/English/index.jsp?pg=homebody.jsp - they seem to be building indigenously a teraflop Linux-based supercomputer.
There is a difference between software and the API. One only needs to expose an syscall API to have other software (third-party applications) interact with their OS.
I think that's somewhat an Utopian view, but not core to this argument.
There is nothing wrong with the DRDO developing their own internal OS or modifying another OS for their special purposes. In fact, I expected that we would already be doing something like this and was slightly disappointed that we weren't. But going out in public and making these claims without even putting out a plan and saying that it is going to be super-secret is just nonsense.
Well, I can't see anywhere that there's no plan in place. It could be nonsense as you say, but without evidence I'm willing to give DRDO the benefit of doubt. If the project head Dr. Saraswat appoints is "a man (or woman) with a clue", he/she'd pick Linux or one of the *BSDs and start working from there.
Binand