Author Topic: Can Linux Distro's be convinced to include Bitshares X by default?  (Read 1384 times)

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Offline maqifrnswa

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I did a little investigation to see what dependencies would be needed to be added to debian in order for bitsharesx to be included:

bitshares_client might be good to go as is.

BitSharesX might require a tremendous amount of effort:
node-lineman would need to be introduced into the repository
https://wiki.debian.org/Javascript/Nodejs/Tasks/lineman

all the dependencies that have no entry in the "debian" column would need to be packaged. And that is just for lineman, you also need to do grunt-release and all those dependencies. That might mean several hundred (or at least dozens) more packages need to be introduced into debian before BitSharesX can.
maintains an Ubuntu PPA: https://launchpad.net/~showard314/+archive/ubuntu/bitshares [15% delegate] wallet_account_set_approval maqifrnswa true [50% delegate] wallet_account_set_approval delegate1.maqifrnswa true

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Offline luckybit

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That is a fair assessment. Thanks for the quick and informative response.
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Offline maqifrnswa

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Imagine if Bitshares X were in Fedora, Ubuntu, Suse, Mint, by default?
Why not push to get it included along with Bitcoin?

I'm probably the expert on that, at least for Ubuntu and Debian, as I'm the one you would have to go through to get it included in those distributions.

To get into a distro you must address these concerns:
1) Legal: licenses must all be compatible and work well with others. Additionally, it must be "free" as defined by the DFSG (google DFSG for details)
2) Stable: software should be mature enough that it can operate without requiring updates to fix critical bugs that could break the system
3) Secure: the software should be built in such a way that will enable rapid fixing of security bugs

As an example, let's look at bitcoin:
1) Licensing is good to go
2) It is not too stable yet: mandatory hardforks can still occur at any time. If it was included by default on systems, it might be possible that a large percentage of machines won't update in a timely manner, thus hurting the network (and credibility of bitcoin). It is possible to do stable updates, but they usually involve a time lag that could exceed the expected hardfork time.
3) Secure: bitcoin requires building against an extremely specific version of a modified leveldb library to ensure network consensus. If a bug is found in the library, it is essential that the bug not be fixed until it is tested and included with upstream bitcoin code. As such, it is impossible to keep it continuously secure without also risking accidental forks or breaking consensus. Also, non-security fixes to bitcoin (i.e. network upgrades) may require rapid response. Distros are slow, on purpose, since a distro that is released is intended to be permanent and fixed to a specific version from the day of release. That's how Debian has the reputation of being one of the best and most stable servers you can use.

Because of those reasons, bitcoin is available in unstable repositories but not in any testing repository

BitSharesX:
1) Licensing probably is good. There are LOTS of javascript-ish files in web_wallet with lots of different licenses, it might be a large effort to go through all of them to make sure everything is properly licensed/copyrighted/whatever
2) Stability: no where near ready
3) Security: using nodejs introduces lots of external code, we would have to work to use debian nodejs packages rather than download via npm in order to leverage debian fixing security bugs on the fly. That's ok, just a decent amount of work. Also, the effects of using system leveldb would need to be analyzed

that's why bitsharesx at this time is not ready for inclusion in debian it ubuntu. PPAs are the best option for now, it allows continuous updating and the ability to have control over all dependencies.
maintains an Ubuntu PPA: https://launchpad.net/~showard314/+archive/ubuntu/bitshares [15% delegate] wallet_account_set_approval maqifrnswa true [50% delegate] wallet_account_set_approval delegate1.maqifrnswa true

Offline luckybit

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Imagine if Bitshares X were in Fedora, Ubuntu, Suse, Mint, by default?
Why not push to get it included along with Bitcoin?
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