[Zope3-dev] Re: Certification: Support platforms different from Linux?

[Tres Seaver]

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Jim Fulton wrote:
> Christian Theune wrote:
> 
>> Hi,
>>
>> although Zope runs on platforms different than Linux, we'll have a hard
>> time to certify it on multiple platforms. Usually a very specific system
>> configuration is given, like "Windows 2003 with Service Pack XY and
>> Hotfixes A, B and C".
>>
>> I think we can get around that by making a small amount of assumptions
>> on the Linux kernel (e.g. large file support, memory, newer than 2.X.Y)
>> and don't go into distribution details. Additionally I'll describe the
>> source installation as the certified way of installing Zope, so we won't
>> be depending on any kind of package machinery.
>>
>> So my question is: Does anybody think it will be a problem for Zope
>> beeing CC certified only on Linux?
> 
> 
> Yes.  The customers of ours most likely to care about this
> use Windows.

Heh, irony noted, given that *no* Windows certifications exist except
for machines not connected to the network.

> I would say in general, for better or worse, the decision makers who
> would care about CC would also care about Windows. I suspect that the
> decision makers who care about linux would me likely to understand 
> that the platform doesn't matter that much and that certification for
> Windows should make them feel warm and fuzzy about their Linux
> installations.

I like the language Christian found about "virtualizing" the problem
(through the JVM, in IBMs case, or through Python in ours).  I don't
know whether TUV will allow Zope to take such an approach.  Frankly,
given our "trust the filesystem implicitly" approach, we want to say
something like:  "we run on any of the following CC-approved OSes."  If
Windows gets a CC certification (or maybe I missed it, and they have one
already for a box with a plugged-in NIC), they we should be fine the run
on it.


Tres
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Tres Seaver          +1 202-558-7113          tseaver at palladion.com
Palladion Software   "Excellence by Design"    http://palladion.com
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