Re: From 2.4 to 2.6 to 2.7?

From: Andi Kleen
Date: Fri Jul 18 2008 - 05:03:12 EST


Alan Cox <alan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:27:56 +0000 (UTC)
> Parag Warudkar <parag.warudkar@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Andi Kleen <andi <at> firstfloor.org> writes:
>>
>>
>> > Or you could just do it like emacs or Solaris and simply use a single number.
>>
>> No - because then those handful of Solaris supporters will get one more 'proof'
>> in support of their claims of Linux copying Solaris - first SystemTap copying
>> DTrace and now version numbers. See how we stand a risk of ending up convinced
>> we do not innovate?
>
> "Support" - dtrace is based on the IBM work it seems, and the IBM work
> predates Solaris dtrace by a long time, so actually you could argue
> Solaris copied Linux but shipped first ;)

Actually SLES9 shipped with IBM dprobes[1] long before Solaris dtrace even
existed (and OS/2 did long before that). Back then the interest in it
was about zero though, which made SLES10 drop it again.
I think I was one of the very few users. Admittedly the early RPN
probes were also not particularly user friendly, but they worked.

I use this always as an example that even sophisticated users
like system administrators and kernel hackers are somewhat marketing driven.

-Andi

[1] which BTW already supported user space probes
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