[Plex86-devel] Light Weight Plex86 Questions

[Bob Diepenbrock]

From my reading the Lite Plex 86 will be restricted to Linux as Guest OS so you won't be able to run Windows, Sco or Solaris with this.

 

As to the "performance" of Plex86.  I believe there is a long way to go before this project will be "on par" with the VMWARE product.

 

Plex86 suffers from a few serious problems at this time..

 

1.  Apparently there is some fragmentation of the development efforts and this project lacks a clear vision for attainable development.

     A.  This new "light" version just starting.

     B.  Win-32 port being worked

     C.  The use of BOCS stuff has sucked some development energy towards that  project.

     D.  The founding developer is now moved on and there is not much getting done. (See 5 and 6 below)

2.  User Level Documentation is poor and lacks enough detail to get the novice up and running his guest OS. 

3.  Nobody is maintaining install packages for various supported platforms, you basically have to build this stuff yourself and there are a lot of things you will have to install before that is going to work.

4.  Plex 86 does not yet support some important features, including floppy drive access, CD Rom Access in a manner that makes it easy to install a new guest OS.

5.  Development level documentation is non-existent, so there is a very steep learning curve for new developers and no guiding principles for adding new features.

6.  Internal documentation in the source is also non-existent for the most part, from my quick review of the code.

 

This is not intended to offend the current developers of this project.  This is what I see as the major issues here.

 

I'm greatly concerned about this new "Plex86 - Light" project.  I don't think it serves the Plex86 project and will further detract from it by dividing the attention of the available developers.  I would also encourage the developers for the Light side to make a clear statement as to their purpose and how it will differ from the purpose of Plex86.  I would also like them to make that clear by altering their project's name, perhaps removing the Plex86 or including "Light" in the name.

 

-= Bob =-