On 06/04/2012 10:14 AM, zxq9 wrote:
> On 06/05/2012 12:42 AM, Yasha Karant wrote:
>> On 05/30/2012 04:55 PM, Stefan Lasiewski wrote:
>>> And for continuity, I'll point out that there was a similar, lengthy
>>> discussion on this topic in September 2011.
>>>
>>> Here is the thread started by Tanmoy Chatterjee:
>>>
>>> http://listserv.fnal.gov/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind1109&L=SCIENTIFIC-LINUX-USERS&T=0&I=-3&X=5E3D186375663BCF45&Y=slasiewski%40lbl.gov&P=26572
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Is there any reliable summary of this information, rather like a matrix
>> that describes characteristics of the relevant EL6 repos?
>>
>> Examples of matrix columns (assuming the rows lists the repos):
>>
>> paid professional or volunteer maintained?
>
> You answered your own question right here.
>
> What "paid professional" is paid to maintain such a list? And if it
> matters to you that a repo is maintained by a paid staff, then you'd
> probably also not trust a list maintained by voltunteers (Who would
> validate the list to standard? And what employer sets the standard?). So
> if you yourself decided to create such a list it would be in your spare
> time as a volunteer effort, thereby invalidating its use by others who
> want such a list and only trust work performed by paid staff for said
> purpose. Etc.
>
> This is a circular line of questioning which crops up from time to time;
> the answer remains the same.

I am not attempting to start an off-topic discussion.  The answer to the 
question is pertinent to practical use of the distro.

This is not circular reasoning.  Both the SL (Fermilab/CERN) and
PUIAS (Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study) EL 
distributions/repos are maintained by a paid professional staff -- 
albeit "lightly" maintained compared to the resources expended by TUV or 
other for-profit corporations.  Although the maintainers may have 
additional duties assigned to them by their employers, both distros have 
paid professionals directly involved as part of their immediate and 
continuing duties.  In the case of a more typical university such as my 
own institution, we mostly have relatively short term GSRAs doing this 
work with some assistance from "advanced" undergraduate students, 
supervised by tenure-line Faculty members who have many other 
responsibilities (including getting the external funding to support 
research, as well as producing papers, funding proposals, conference 
presentations, university shared governance, and a host of other duties, 
such as direct classroom instruction).

However, having a paid professional staff, with professional expertise, 
typically produces a more robust product (unless for-profit management 
personnel dictate otherwise) and allows software to be maintained.

Back to my question:  is there such a matrix?  Has anyone -- paid 
professional or volunteer -- prepared such a matrix?  Or must one dig 
through numerous listserve threads to garner the information, 
essentially anew for each person doing the digging?

Yasha Karant