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Interview with Andrew Tridgell

Posted by michael on from the sharing-made-easy dept.

Jeremy Allison - Sam writes "See here for a *great* interview with tridge. My favourite quote: 'In 50 years' time I doubt anyone would have ever heard of Samba, but they'll probably be using rsync in one way or another,' Tridgell says. Cheers, Jeremy."

4 of 165 comments (clear)

  1. Re:i want this sequence by budcub · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hmmm, maybe he discovered the "SMB-die" attack.

  2. Re:In 50 years, I doubt many will know what Unix i by m0rph3us0 · · Score: 5, Informative

    UNIX doomsday, this only applies to 32-bit integers if you recompile your code with time as a 64-bit integer (like on 64-bit processors) then the 32 bit integer which represents time as seconds since circa 1970, will last for 70 ish years, however a 64 bit integer can store 2^32 times more numbers, meaning it will last for 70 * (2^32) years. So as long as all UNIX machines are on 64 bit processors by 2038, doomsday will be avoided until the year 300647712690. In other words approx. 280 billion years. Given that we estimate that the universe is approaching its mid life crisis, 64 bits should keep time for 9.3 universe life times. I have a feeling my math may be a bit off can someone double check this for me. I do know that 64 bit UNIX time will last for a the forseeable future.

  3. Re:Back to life... Back to reality by William+Tanksley · · Score: 5, Informative

    You don't know what you're talking about.

    Samba isn't developed my Microsoft; SMB is. And the problems SMB solves are fading even now; in 50 years there's no way that SMB will be useful. Microsoft will have moved on to something else.

    And, of course, rsync isn't part of the rlogin/rsh/rwhatever toolset. It's completely independant.

    The reason that rsync might still be used is that it implements a really powerful algorithm to do its job, which is being adopted in many cutting-edge projects. I don't know if those cutting-edge projects will have relatives which are still in use in 50 years, but they have more of a chance than Samba.

    -Billy

  4. Rsync good by larien · · Score: 4, Informative
    I have to say rsync is an excellent bit of software. It has a small task, and damn it does it well. I subscribe to the Sun Manager's list and there are several times I've recommended rsync, just because it is the best bit of software around for copying files while retaining all the Unix stuff like:
    • file ownership
    • permissions
    • symlinks
    • special files (devices, etc)
    • hard links
    Great bit of software. Perhaps not as technically excellent as Samba, which is more complex, but very useful.