On Oct 26, 2012, at 10:47 AM, Greg Blomquist wrote:
Hey Jarda
----- Original Message -----
> From: "JaromÃr Coufal" <jcoufal(a)redhat.com>
> To: "Greg Blomquist" <gblomqui(a)redhat.com>
> Cc: aeolus-devel(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
> Sent: Friday, October 26, 2012 7:59:56 AM
> Subject: Re: Winged Monkey
>
> Hi Greg,
>
> thank you for your answer, there are few reactions within the text.
>
<big snip>
>
>> Don't take this as a directive to drop everything related to
>> Conductor and start devoting time to Winged Monkey. You should
>> only
>> get involved if it actually makes sense for you to do so.
> Oh, no worries, I don't take it directive. I just wanted to bring out
> my
> thoughts, which might help to see it from different point of view. I
> don't say I am right, I don't say that these are my thoughts I will
> insist on. Please, take it more like discussion about Winked Monkey
> and
> Conductor, which helps to make the project more clear (at least to
> me).
>
> -- Jarda
>
I believe this is the core of our discussion. We're circling around
the opposite ends of the same idea: serve more than just the admin
user community of cloud users.
Clearly, there are ideas that I've snipped out above that I should
probably respond to. But, in the end, I think you and I could dance
around the technical merit of different approaches to realizing this
idea of providing a useful interface for non-technical cloud users.
Could you please elaborate on what sort of person is a "non-technical cloud
user?" What sort of VMs do you envision them spinning up? Is the thinking that
someone else (a "technical" user or an admin) will precreate images that provide
services for which the end-user does not need to use SSH or have Linux skills? If so,
I'm guessing this would be something like an image that, when started, automatically
launches something like Wordpress (or whatever app/site has a good OOTB experience and
doesn't require SSH). If not, then I'm not sure there really is a non-technical
cloud user.
My sincere belief is that we're both right. In fact, I think
Conductor _should_ be enhanced and expanded to support non-technical
users. I believe that should happen because we have an obligation
to try out that path forward.
I also believe that we should simultaneously explore other paths
forward. Winged Monkey is one such path.
You've raised valid technical concerns that I've snipped. The
main reason is that I don't have all the technical answers. My
default answer to anything regarding "hey, you need to handle XYZ"
is, at least for the foreseeable future, going to be "no I don't,
some other app already does that".
That's insufficient as a technical argument, I completely understand
that. And, it's difficult to paint a better picture until those
technical arguments can be defended. Until that time comes, I'm
gonna keep trudging forward with this to either show it can work,
or disprove its value. I don't think I've reached either of those
ends yet, though.
Hope that helps a bit.
----
Greg