[Opensim-dev] Raise minimum .net framework version to 4.0 and mono version to 2.8 (with 2.10 strongly recommended) in 2Q2013

Tue Jan 29 17:59:51 UTC 2013

It's nice to want to support old Linux versions but anyone who is going to
install OpenSim on Linux, which is not something anyone who isn't a capable
sysadmin will do, can easily set up that machine with a modern version of
Ubunto where Mono 2.10 is supported (or use some other distro and manually
install OpenSim from a third-party website). Had we said that upgrading to
Mono 2.10 would make it harder for non-technical people to run OpenSim then
there would have been some (small) justification for holding back on
advancing OpenSim. However, to do so in order to save sysadmins from
upgrading their outdated distros is putting the needs of the very few above
those of the great majority of OpenSim users.

Delaying advancement of a software project that is labeled Alpha for the
stated reason places enterprise-level legacy support requirements on an
open-source project that is developed and used by people that have nothing
preventing them from upgrading their systems (Windows and Mac users have no
problem using the latest Mono versions as it is). No end-user is going to
be affected by this upgrade, if any of them is using Linux at home (which I
doubt more than a few dozen are) then they are likely either using Ubunto
in the first place and/or are capable of downloading and installing Mono
from a third-party site.

How many people are going to be served by delaying an upgrade to .NET 4.0?
How many people will have an inferior OpenSim because of that delay?

It's not that we're preventing anyone from using the existing OpenSim
version. We're just saying that if you want to use the latest version on
Linux you need to have Mono 2.10 or later installed. If it doesn't come
with your distro then search for a third-party site that provides it and
download it from there. People who can't be bothered to doing either one of
those things can continue using the existing OpenSim version.

Again, let's focus on advancing OpenSim and not on saving some sysadmins
the few hours it will take them to install and setup Mono and/or a new
Linux distro on their server(s).

Cheers,

Ilan Tochner
Co-Founder and CEO
Kitely Ltd.

On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 6:16 PM, Mike Chase <
mike.chase at alternatemetaverse.com> wrote:

> Just curious.  Call me crazy and stuff but why are you worrying about
> ancient distros with LTS for cases where upgrades to Mono are clearly
> available.  And this is to support software that is perpetually alpha?  So
> you are concerned about adopting .NET 4.0 features because someone might be
> running an ancient version of debian or Ubuntu presumably in some
> production
> scenarios using software you've branded as Alpha.
>
> Why don't we call OpenSim what it is.  A research project.   People have
> taken and with considerable effort doe some hardening to that sufficient to
> run a production grid.  But it is what it is.
>
> And sorry Justin I don't meant to jump on you. You're a good guy.  You have
> to deal with the other members of a board drawing lines in the sand left
> and
> right that suit themselves and their own business interests.  Sorry
> Melanie,
> the "it's never gonna happen" comments are so out of place for a board
> member of an open public project.  Really you have no business being in the
> position you are. But that's what it is as well.
>
> Ok enough ranting.  If you feel that upgrading to the 4.0 .NET apis would
> benefit OpenSim as a whole (I do) then do it.  Deciding what versions of
> mono to use and what distribution to use it on are deployment
> considerations
> that someone should be considering carefully based on what they want to use
> the software for.  And if they are trying to run anything close to a
> production service then they need to be aware of the issues involved in the
> various versions of mono and make their choice based on that.
>
> I doubt I get a vote but if I did I'd vote to advance the API version of
> .NET and pick up the new features therein.  Document the dependencies and
> let people doing deployment sort out the environment that best meets their
> requirements.  My 2 cents.
>
> Mike
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: opensim-dev-bounces at lists.berlios.de
> [mailto:opensim-dev-bounces at lists.berlios.de] On Behalf Of Justin
> Clark-Casey
> Sent: Monday, January 28, 2013 10:42 PM
> To: opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de
> Subject: [Opensim-dev] Raise minimum .net framework version to 4.0 and mono
> version to 2.8 (with 2.10 strongly recommended) in 2Q2013
>
> After some further investigation, it turns out that Mono 2.6 does not make
> the higher parameter Func calls available unless it has been built in a
> special preview mode.  This is not available on at least the Ubuntu Mono
> package and I suspect most, if not all, of the other distro packages as
> well.
>
> Therefore, the minimum version of Mono that will use them is 2.8 (for which
> C# 4.0 is the default).  Polling the earliest supported release versions of
> various Linux distros, the situation is
>
> Debian 6.0 (squeeze)    Mono 2.6.7
> Ubuntu 8.04 LTS         Mono 1.2.6
> Ubuntu 10.04 LTS        Mono 2.4
> Ubuntu 11.10            Mono 2.10.8.1
> Ubuntu 12.04 LTS        Mono 2.10.8.1
> openSUSE 11.4           Mono 2.8.2
> openSUSE 12.1           Mono 2.10.6
> CentOS 5                no Mono package
> CentOS 6                no Mono package
>
> I see Debian squeeze as the sticking point here.  Debian 7.0 (wheezy) will
> ship Mono 2.10.8.1 and has been frozen since 2012-06-30.  Debian does not
> work to release dates so it's impossible to say when it will be released,
> though the indications are that it will be in the first half of this year.
> Even when it is released, Debian squeeze will most probably be supported
> until early 2014.
>
> In light of this, I am going to recommend that we do not update the minimum
> version of Mono until Debian wheezy is released.  We've already effectively
> been living with this situation for a while so I don't think that a bit
> longer is going to hurt, though making modInvoke() properly useable is
> important.  If wheezy is not released by the time that OpenSimulator 0.7.6
> is here, which I anticipate being shortly after Easter, then we can revisit
> the topic.
>
> This means that existing binary packages will continue to be compiled
> against .NET 3.5 (though ironically the current 0.7.5-RC packages have been
> compiled to work with Mono >2.8 only, which will be fixed for the final
> release).
>
> When the update occurs, everything will compile and run against Mono 2.8
> but
> Mono 2.10 will be strongly recommended as the Mono 2.8 series has proved
> considerably buggy in the past.
>
> Once the update is made, the target framework will be .net 4.0 rather than
> .net 3.5.  This will allow c# 4.0 language features to be used and will
> require the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 packages to be installed on Windows.
>
> We've already heard arguments both ways so I doubt that it's worth
> rehashing
> them.  However, I also think this would be a marginal decision so I welcome
> any new points.
>
> --
> Justin Clark-Casey (justincc)
> OSVW Consulting
> http://justincc.org
> http://twitter.com/justincc
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