[webkit-dev] The tree is on fire: a tragedy of the commons

[Alex Milowski]

On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 8:19 AM, Adam Barth <abarth at webkit.org> wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 7:24 AM, Alex Milowski <alex at milowski.com> wrote:
>> On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 7:17 AM, Eric Seidel <eric at webkit.org> wrote:
>>> On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 7:12 AM, Alex Milowski <alex at milowski.com> wrote:
>>>>> The only EWS which requires committer access is Mac-EWS.  All other
>>>>> EWS bots will run any patch.
>>>>
>>>> Why is that?   That's the platform I'm most interested in see run.
>>>
>>> Various reasons.  Mostly due to our current hardware setup.  If
>>> someone has some mac hardware they'd like to donate to the cause it
>>> would be most welcome.
>>
>> That seems really, really solvable.
>
> The core issue here is that the license for Mac OS X prevents us from
> running the OS in a virtual machine.  The way we protect ourselves
> from random folks haxoring the EWS on Linux is by running them on EC2
> and re-imagining the machines periodically.

So, it is possible to run Mac OS X on a virtual machine:

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/11/01/apple_frees_mac_os_x_leopard_server_to_run_in_virtual_machines.html

or the:

http://images.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/macosxserver105.pdf

which says:

"You may also Install and use other copies of Mac OS X Server Software
on the same Apple-labeled computer,"

You just need to use Apple hardware.  Hence the request for hardware.  :)

The real issue is you can't run this in the cloud like on an EC2 server
because of the hardware restriction in Apple's license, right?

> If you'd like to donate hardware that you're willing to have random
> folks run code on, please let me or Eric know and we'll show you how
> to get the mac-ews up and running.
>

I have limited bandwidth where I'm at and so hosting something, while
possible, needs careful consideration.  I've contemplated running something
like EWS for my own work so I'd be interested in learning how this work.

...but will just one server out there somewhere solve this problem?  Don't
we need several?

-- 
--Alex Milowski
"The excellence of grammar as a guide is proportional to the paucity of the
inflexions, i.e. to the degree of analysis effected by the language
considered."

Bertrand Russell in a footnote of Principles of Mathematics