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2006 OpenBSD Hackathon Well Underway

Posted by ryuzaki0 on

An anonymous reader writes "KernelTrap is running a two part who's who at the 2006 OpenBSD Hackathon. Starting on the 27th and running for a full week, developers get together and concentrate on communication rather than just development. Project leader Theo de Raadt was quoted as saying 'I don't think anybody else does this, developers suspend their lives for a week to focus entirely on just development.'"

71 comments

  1. you're not alone doing this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Theo de Raadt was quoted as saying 'I don't think anybody else does this, developers suspend their lives for a week to focus entirely on just development.'

    For just one project that does this often, see http://plone.org/events/sprints

    1. Re:you're not alone doing this by AMK · · Score: 1

      Python just had a sprint in Iceland, too.

  2. No one else does an -athon? by 192939495969798999 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    So no one else suspends work to do something else intensely for a short time as a competition/etc. Let's make a short list: semi-pro (or even pro in some sports) athletes. touring artisans. olympians. the peace corps. So yes, lots of other people do something like a "hack"athon, for their chosen area of interest.

    --
    stuff |
    1. Re:No one else does an -athon? by Toba82 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's not the point - what he was saying is that no other free software project actually has a meetup where they code in a setting that is, frankly, what closed source companies use 100% of the time.

      --
      I pretend to know more than I really do by mooching off google and wikipedia.
    2. Re:No one else does an -athon? by OmegaBlac · · Score: 2, Informative

      Debian developers do this. It may not be a week at a time but several weekends a year and it eventually evens out.

      http://wiki.debian.org/BSPMarathon

    3. Re:No one else does an -athon? by JanneM · · Score: 0

      what he was saying is that no other free software project actually has a meetup where they code in a setting that is, frankly, what closed source companies use 100% of the time.

      He's saying that, and he's wrong. Is there any major OSS project - GNOME, KDE, Linux, Apache ... - that doesn't do this?

      --
      Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
  3. Re:Yeah. by Roody+Blashes · · Score: 3, Funny

    I guess that says something about some of the developers around here....

    I gotta say, the AC has a point. I spend 50-60 hours a week writing code because, uh, that's what I'm paid to do.

    --
    If you haven't foed me yet, what are you waiting for?
  4. Pfft! A week?!? by OmegaBlac · · Score: 5, Funny
    Project leader Theo de Raadt was quoted as saying 'I don't think anybody else does this, developers suspend their lives for a week to focus entirely on just development.
    Tell that too the EA developers!
  5. Axes? by TheDreadSlashdotterD · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is this where the techie fight clubs use axes for a day?

    --
    I have nothing to say.
    1. Re:Axes? by codegen · · Score: 1
      Is this where the techie fight clubs use axes for a day

      Nah.. Just pitchforks....

      --
      Atlas stands on the earth and carries the celestial sphere on his shoulders.
  6. Re:Yeah. by OECD · · Score: 3, Funny

    'I don't think anybody else does this, developers suspend their lives for a week to focus entirely on just development.'"

    WTF? What the hell are they doing, then? JFC, it must be fscking nice... No Karma points for them. Bad developers! Bad! *smacks nose with newspaper*

    --
    One man's -1 Flamebait is another man's +5 Funny.
  7. I like OpenBSD and all, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... it's not like no one else has gatherings where people go someplace and work on a focused set of goals for a week or so; it's called a "sprint".

    1. Re:I like OpenBSD and all, but... by Nimrangul · · Score: 4, Informative

      No, a sprint is shorter than a hackathon and tends to be run by significantly smaller projects than a full operating systems. Something insignificant like pypy or the like does a sprint, infact that's how most of their development is done, two day sprints all the time.

      --
      I'm sick of following my dreams - I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.
    2. Re:I like OpenBSD and all, but... by Johnny+deBris · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, PyPy sprints can last more than a day or two, iirc the longest was 6 or 7 days. Same for Zope and other Python projects: week-long sprints are uncommon, but they do happen. Also, I wonder whether this has anything to do with significance... I think hackathons and sprints are basically the same thing, just different words for similar gatherings in different communities.

  8. Illogical captain ... by phoebe · · Score: 0, Redundant

    ... developers get together and concentrate on communication rather than just development. Project leader Theo de Raadt was quoted as saying 'I don't think anybody else does this, developers suspend their lives for a week to focus entirely on just development.'"

    How can you quote one sentence and incorrectly interpret it at the same time?

  9. Re:Yeah. by twistah · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Look up the word "volunteer" in the dictionary.

  10. WTF? Contradiction in the Summary! by pgpckt · · Score: 4, Funny

    KernelTrap is running a two part who's who at the 2006 OpenBSD Hackathon. Starting on the 27th and running for a full week, developers get together and concentrate on communication rather than just development. Project leader Theo de Raadt was quoted as saying 'I don't think anybody else does this, developers suspend their lives for a week to focus entirely on just development.'"

    --
    Lawrence Lessig is my personal hero.
    1. Re:WTF? Contradiction in the Summary! by QuantumG · · Score: 0, Troll

      That's Theo de Raddt for you, a walking contradiction.

      --
      How we know is more important than what we know.
    2. Re:WTF? Contradiction in the Summary! by RevDobbs · · Score: 1

      Like ninjas?

    3. Re:WTF? Contradiction in the Summary! by nacturation · · Score: 2

      Obviously de Raadt didn't write the former. He was quoted as saying the latter. But development isn't just shutting your mouth and coding -- if you run into a snag, it's easiest when you can go and talk to the person whose part you're trying to interface with or get help from others who have overcome those obstacles rather than having to send an email across various timezones, wait for a response, etc. Having everyone there just in case of such issues leads to more development being done which is, after all, the primary purpose.

      --
      Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
  11. Re:Yeah. by gbobeck · · Score: 4, Funny
    > I don't think anybody else does this, developers suspend their lives for a week to focus entirely on just development.

    Yes, that would be called doing your job.


    Yeah... and some people also call that **College**
    --
    Navicula hydraulica plena anguilarum est. Omnes castelli tuus nostri sunt. Ed elli avea del cul fatto trombetta.
  12. Re:Yeah. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ewww, a job. Doesn't your country have ALG2 or Hartz IV? Fucking losers.

  13. Re:Yeah. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Look up the word "volunteer" in the dictionary.

    WTF are you talking about? Where does that word appear in either the main article, the grandparent, or the parent?

  14. How is this useful? by cperciva · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I've never been to an OpenBSD Hackathon, but I really don't understand how this is the best way to use their time together. Surely the advantage of getting everybody into a room together is to allow them to talk to each other more easily, not to allow them to all stare at their terminals and ignore each other.

    When FreeBSD developer summits occur (e.g., at the recent BSDCan), there is always some important hacking done, but the most useful result of the devsummit is that people can talk to each other and make decisions about where the project should going next (e.g., dropping support for Alpha, working more on embedded/arm support, et cetera). Clearly we're missing something important -- can someone more familiar with OpenBSD tell me what the ingredient is in Theo's Magic Kool-Aid which makes developers better at hacking code when they all get together in a single room?

    --
    Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
    1. Re:How is this useful? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      I've never been to an OpenBSD hackathon either, but I think the theory is that when you are coding, you often might run into a problem where you'd like to consult someone else, and at the hackathon, an expert is right at the next table. No need to worry about lag from email/IM waiting for a response while another person has gone away for the day, or lives in a different time-zone, is busy working at their day-job, etc, etc.

    2. Re:How is this useful? by RazzleDazzle · · Score: 4, Informative

      There are no "project decisions" to be discussed and made. Theo is the owner of the project, if you want to debate with him on the merits of his choices for the project, he will likely listen to what you have to say as long as it is reasonable to him.

      As an analogy imagine if you were part of a team creating a car. Each person in the team is worked on just part of the car.
      Person 1 says, "I like engines so I am going to work on engine development."
      Person 2 says, "I like tires so I am going to work on tires and wheels."
      Person 3 says, "I like safety features so I am going to work on safety."
      etc.

      Now imagine all of these people working on their respective components but in different countries around the world, completely independent of the rest, it could be difficult to ensure proper integration and compatability. Yes they chat, e-mail, etc but when many people are side by side it is much easier to discuss problems you are facing, either design issues, implementaion issues or whatever. Plus, you get to be around a lot of dialogue and discussions that could help enlighten you to other methods or ways of doing things better.

      This could just be an oversimplification, but if you work directly with a lot of cool and fun people you admire and are admired by, let's face it, it probably is a lot more fun and productive. It is a team effort of people that like what they are doing and want to do it all lead by captain TdR. Plus I imagine there is some Humppa playing there as well?

      Note: I am no developer nor have I ever been to an OpenBSD hackathon.

      --
      ZERO ZERO ONE ZERO ONE ZERO ONE ONE! Just brushing up for my next big invention: Ethernet over Voice (EoV)
    3. Re:How is this useful? by 0racle · · Score: 1

      They're invitation only for the projects core developers. It's not like it's an open, random thing.

      --
      "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
    4. Re:How is this useful? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where did I imply it was open to the public?

    5. Re:How is this useful? by maxx_730 · · Score: 1

      Thats a stupid analogy. With OpenBSD summits its more like this: OpenBSD Developer: I like safe code so im going to make sure all code we write is safe OpenBSD Developer: I like readable code so im going to make sure all code we write is readable OpenBSD Developer: I like safe code so im going to make sure all code we write is safe OpenBSD Developer: I like readable code so im going to make sure all code we write is readable Etc..

    6. Re:How is this useful? by lon3st4r · · Score: 1
      Can we not have such collaborative hackathons over the internet? The problems of somebody not being there etc. will go aay then. Free VoIP calls (Skype et. al) are all too good now a days. Wot say?

      * lon3st4r*

    7. Re:How is this useful? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's very obvious that as a FreeBSD committer you're a bit stupid and arrogant. Stick to your own crappy FreeBSD stuff and let the OpenBSD developers lead the security race.

      Glass 4

  15. What about DebConf? by Roblimo · · Score: 5, Informative

    It seems to me that two weeks ago I was in Mexico at DebConf, which if you look at the official page, was preceded by a weeklong "DebCamp" that could just as easily been called a "hackathon," not to mention that probably 60% or more of the average attendee's time during the "main" DebConf week was spent in collaborative hacking. And DebConf had around 250 people there...

    I'm not knocking OpenBSD's hackathon, just pointing out that it's hardly unique. Many other FOSS projects have similar gatherings.

    1. Re:What about DebConf? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah but OpenBSD hackathons usually produce things of great value. Others are just a communal handjob.

    2. Re:What about DebConf? by kkiller · · Score: 1

      Parent is insightful? Do you have some evidence for that statement, oh Mr Coward?

    3. Re:What about DebConf? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Parent is insightful? Do you have some evidence for that statement, oh Mr Coward?

      Yes he is insightful. You can download the evidence. Download almost any OSS software, be it application or OS in the form of the Linux kernel or Linux distribution. Use them, read the man pages and other documentation, etc. Download the source and read some of it.

      Now download OpenBSD, use it, read the documentation, read some of the source.

      OpenBSD and related project source is clean and professional and the resulting binaries and overall system is very nice indeed. Linux and lots of other OSS software on the other hand can be an absolute dogs breakfast and few if any match or exceed OpenBSD for quality.

  16. Marc Balmer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm sure he have got the question "Any relationship?" more than once...

    And to the besserwissers out there... yes, I know Steve spells it will to l's.

  17. What ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Very few people get paid to work on OpenBSD, most of them have jobs as well.

  18. Meet the Hackathon by rbrander · · Score: 5, Informative

    For the second time (and we're hoping for an annual tradition) the Hackathon has agreed to come up for air long enough to give a talk to the Calgary Unix Users Group.

    This year, Bob Beck and Reyk Floeter will give a talk to the group and many Hackathon participants on their directions in wireless chipset support, advanced feature support, and security support.

    At SAIT, June 1, 6PM - all details at

    http://www.cuug.ab.ca/

    1. Re:Meet the Hackathon by dorfsmay · · Score: 1


      And beyond the fact that you'll be able to listen to some top developers in the industry, this is your opportunity to get your hands on OpenBSD 3.9 CDs, T-shirts and posters !

    2. Re:Meet the Hackathon by ArbitraryConstant · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I was going to post something here, but it seems half the board has already beaten me to it...

      I'm looking forward to it, they had some pretty sweet demos last time. For example, to demonstrate the firewall failover capabilities, they played music on a network mount that was behind a firewall. When they shut down the primary firewall node, the music didn't even skip as the backup took over.

      --
      I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
  19. lives? by dartarrow · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    What lives?
    ..besides I dont think moving out of mums basement for a week is that big a sacrifice.

    --
    I love humanity, it is people I hate
  20. EA-thon by Coward+Anonymous · · Score: 0, Redundant

    'I don't think anybody else does this, developers suspend their lives for a week to focus entirely on just development.'

    Tell that to the folks at EA. Or to any other member of a startup for that matter who suspend their lives for at least a couple years.

  21. Suspending "Lives" of some of these developers... by layer3switch · · Score: 1

    Project leader Theo de Raadt was quoted as saying 'I don't think anybody else does this, developers suspend their lives for a week to focus entirely on just development.'


    Can Acar
    Can lives in Ankara, Turkey. He began using OpenBSD in 1998

    Thordur Bjornson
    Thordur lives in Hafnarfjordur, Iceland. ...continued to hang out with OpenBSD people on the mailing lists and IRC.

    Henning Brauer
    He noted that he did most of the work blindly on the airplane, and still could use hardware for testing.

    Michael Coulter
    Michael lives in North Vancouver, Canada.

    Gordon Klok
    Gordon lives in Windsor, Ontario in Canada.

    Marc La France
    Marc is from Edmonton, Canada. He's from the XFree86 group

    Ryan McBride
    Ryan was living in Vancouver, Canada

    Peter Valchev
    Peter lives in Calgary, Canada.

    Tobias Weingartner
    Tobias lives in Edmonton, Canada.

    Ken Westerback
    Ken lives in Toronto, Canada.

    Kjell Wooding
    Kjell lives in Calgary, Canada.

    Theo de Raadt
    Theo lives in Calgary, Canada. He started the OpenBSD repository on October 18'th, 1995.


    Suspending lives? More like OpenBSD zealot's Spring break... without the girls and tanned skins.

    --
    "Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
  22. Re:heh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I found it interesting that so many of the OpenBSD developers started off working with Linux (that some come from the other BSD's is hardly a surprise considering OpenBSD's origin). It seemed they were motivated as much by being disenchanted with Linux code quality (and documentation) as they were captivated by OpenBSD. It begs the question as to whether Linux really needs tighter integration and stricter controls on key libraries, utilities, etc. now that it has become a mainstream OS so far from its hobby beginnings. You could dismiss them all as malcontents, but I'm beginning to wonder (by numbers and lingering rumours) if there is something to these criticisms.

  23. Contradictions in the story? by jemfinch · · Score: 2, Funny

    Let's take a closer look...

    First, we have the story submitter saying this: "developers get together and concentrate on communication rather than just development."

    And then we have Theo saying this: "developers suspend their lives for a week to focus entirely on just development."

    Hmm...

    --
    Looking for a Python IRC bot?
  24. Plone just held a week-long sprint by jdstahl · · Score: 1

    Sounds like Theo doesn't know about the Plone community, which just wrapped up their week-long "Archipelago Sprint" on a Norwegian island to drive forward development of the next major release of the most kick-ass open-source CMS on the planet.

    1. Re:Plone just held a week-long sprint by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hate to break it to you buddy, no, I take that back, I not only don't hate it, I relish in being the one to tell you that plone is just some stupid little script.

      There is no merit in something that stupid and insignificant, there are much bigger things in the world than shitty little scripts. Perhaps Theo doesn't know about something so small and useless?

      Maybe, just maybe, the world doesn't care about garbage like plone?

  25. Re:heh by martin-boundary · · Score: 1

    I'm afraid you're making an elementary mistake. If BSD is dead, then dereferencing the pointer will just give you a segfault.

  26. test by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    test firewall test

    1. Re:test by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No route to host.

  27. Re:Yeah. by Nimrangul · · Score: 2, Insightful

    He said it because it's what open source developers are you dipshit, they volunteer their time to develop a free piece of software, the only one of them that is consistantly making a living through OpenBSD is de Raadt, and he lives and breaths OpenBSD. Perhaps you should be reading a different section of Slashdot, so as to not confuse you with these complex concepts.

    --
    I'm sick of following my dreams - I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.
  28. Re:Suspending "Lives" of some of these developers. by dmiller · · Score: 4, Informative

    Nice work trimming out the ones from other countries.

  29. Re:heh by HeX314 · · Score: 1

    ...dereferencing the pointer will just give you a segfault.

    It's a regular expression, not a variable name.

    English is a script, not a compilable language.

  30. Re:heh by ecmascript · · Score: 1

    It's a regular expression, not a variable name.

    Actually its a glob or wildcard expression. To be a regular expression it would have to contain the dot character before the asterisk.

  31. Re:Yeah. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A Mitch Hedberg Sig??
    I don't know you but I like you already dude!!

  32. Re:heh by kkiller · · Score: 1
    Did Netcraft...

    Oh, nevermind.

  33. Debian does two weeks! by javifs · · Score: 1

    Actually, Debian developers do more. (approx) 250 Debian Developers have recently (two weeks ago) attended this year's Debian Conference in Mexico. Not everybody hacked all the time (as the pictures proved) but there was quite a bit of it.

    Also, even if the main conference is held yearly, there are mini conferences held with fewer people (30-100) in, at least, Australia, Japan and Spain.

  34. Re:Suspending "Lives" of some of these developers. by Ratbert42 · · Score: 1

    Yeah, he left just a few people off of the list:
    Alexandre Anriot is from Marseille, France.
    Marc Balmer lives in Basel, Switzerland.
    Todd Fries is from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in the US.
    David Gwynne lives in Brisbane, Australia...
    Matthieu Herrb lives in Toulouse, France...
    Hans Hoexer lives near Nuremberg in Germany.
    Mark Kettenis lives in Assen in the Netherlands.
    Ray Lai lives in New York City in the US.
    Chad Loder lives in California in the US.
    Jolan Luff lives in Chicago, Illinois in the US.
    Anil Madhavapeddy lives in Cambridge, UK...
    Pedro Martelletto lives in Rio, Brazil.
    Uwe Stuehler is from Berlin in Germany.
    Joris Vink lives in Dominica, a tropical island in the Caribbean.
    Jason Wright lives in Chantilly, Virginia in the US.
    Can Acar lives in Ankara, Turkey.
    Thordur Bjornson lives in Hafnarfjordur, Iceland.
    Henning Brauer lives in Hamburg, Germany.
    Reyk Floeter is from Hannover, Germany.
    Mats Jansson lives in Stockholm, Sweden.
    Claudio Jeker lives in Zurich, Switzerland.
    Moritz Jodeit lives in Hamburg, Germany.
    Michael Knudsen lives in Aalborg, Denmark.
    Felix Kronlage is from Oldenburg, Germany.
    Robert Nagy is from Debrecen, Hungary.
    Esben Norby lives in Ringkobing, Denmark.
    Niall O'Higgins is from Dublin, Ireland.
    Chris Pascoe lives in Brisbane, Australia.
    Dale Rahn is living in St. Joseph, Illinois, in the US.
    Martin Reindl lives in Vienna, Austria.
    Nikolay Sturm is from Munich, Germany.
    Christian "Naddy" Weisgerber lives in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

  35. Re:Suspending "Lives" of some of these developers. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sausagefest, anyone?

  36. wth?!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hoompah!

  37. OpenBSD code auditing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I know this is somewhat offtopic, but...

    Much of the purpose of OpenBSD's code auditing is getting rid of buffer overflows. But buffer overflows are basically a byproduct of C arrays. Considering that computers these days are significantly faster than they were when the C language was originally written, wouldn't OpenBSD be well-served by porting itself to something like Cyclone?

    Cyclone programs do have bounds-checking, and so they'll be a bit slower than C programs, but that seems like a small price to pay for a /guarantee/ that your code will be safe. Then OpenBSD developers can spend their time optimizing their code for efficiency, with the knowledge that it's perfectly secure... which is much better than having to optimize for both efficiency and security at the same time, no?

    1. Re:OpenBSD code auditing by DashEvil · · Score: 1

      Security is a process, a state of mind, not a product.

      Buffer Overflows are not the only kinds of programming errors that make something insecure. Besides, between ProPolice and all the memory protection OpenBSD ships with I seriously doubt that Buffer Overflows affect it anyway.... but, again, they are bugs, and bugs should be squashed, even if they cause no harm.

      --
      -If God wanted people to be better than me, he would have made them that way.
  38. Re:heh by eclectechie · · Score: 1
    I found it interesting that so many of the OpenBSD developers started off working with Linux ...

    Works for me... let them learn somehere else, then come and do their best work on OpenBSD.

    --
    "The empty vessel makes the greatest sound." -- William Shakespeare; Henry V, 4. 4