Progeny <URL: http://www.progeny.com/ > is pleased to announce the
launch of a new website for the Discover project <URL:
http://platform.progeny.com/discover/ >.
Discover is a set of libraries and utilities for gathering and reporting
information about a system's hardware. Version 1.0 of Discover was
released with Debian 3.0 ("woody") to a very positive response, and was
promptly adopted as the hardware-detection technology of choice by the
Debian-Installer team, who are reimplementing Debian's installer technology
in a highly modular and flexible fashion that will also be easier to
maintain. We're delighted that Discover's mettle has been tested against
competing technologies such as Kudzu, and found to be a better fit for
Debian's needs.
However, the impact of Discover 1.0 has been limited due to the narrow
expressiveness of its data format, and the perennial problem of
distribution of updates about known hardware.
Discover 2.0, over a year in the making, addresses both of these
problems. First, it uses an XML-based data format that's designed to
permit a high degree of flexibility, and to leave open the possibility of
associating hardware devices with any sort of software interface.
Secondly, it utilizes the CURL library (which can be enabled - or not -
at build time) for retrieval of data stores about hardware from anywhere
on the Internet. Discover 2.0 can collate the data from multiple resources,
whether stored on a local filesystem or on the network, and will use the
most up-to-date information it can find. Ian Murdock, founder of Debian
and chief strategist for Progeny, likens the Discover 2.0 method of
operation to one of Debian's most impressive technologies: "Discover is APT
for hardware information."
Now that Discover 2.0 is stabilizing, Progeny is looking to the free
software and open source communities to set the goals for Discover
2.1, 3.0, and beyond. To that end, we have redesigned Discover's
website and made available a snapshot of our CVS developments. These
are just baby steps, however, toward the big change: In the coming
weeks, we anticipate making the development process of Discover
(and other enabling technology initiatives) completely public by means
of a web-based Subversion repository. We understand how difficult it is
to contribute to a project in which the "interesting stuff" happens behind
a curtain, so we're excited to pull back that curtain, reveal the workbench,
and let the community see how we really work on Discover (mistakes
and all!).
Discover was developed primarily by Branden Robinson, Eric Gillespie,
Josh Bressers, and John Daily of Progeny, with assistance from a cast of
dozens. If Discover excites you as well, we cordially invite you to
participate in Progeny's open development initiative.
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Branden Robinson | GPG signed/encrypted mail welcome
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Progeny Linux Systems | D5F6 D4C9 E25B 3D37 068C
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