No more support for windows

Sat Jun 5 14:34:58 UTC 2021

> Peter,
>
>
> do you seriously think that this word play is going to help the BIND 9
> support for Windows? So, I am asking you, what’s your serious
> proposal what should we do?
>

You may regard it as a word play but I am being very serious indeed.

I have looked high up and low down for a definition of what BIND is
and what it does and the most specific and succinct one I could find is
the one which I quoted.  If it was a true definintion of BIND, I would
be very pleased because I would have found exactly what I was looking
for.

My serious proposal on what you should do now is that you should come
up with a proper description/definition of BIND which considers carefully
whether it should be described as "highly portable" or whether it it
would be more accurately described as closely wedded to the Unix world
and likely to become increasingly difficult to use anywhere outside this
world as time goes forward.

How can people know whether they want to contribute to something if
there is no clear and accurate definition of what it the something is
or if at best the definition means different things to different people?
Is it not in everybody's interest that we all know exactly what we
are talking about?

(For the record, I personally have no interest in BIND 9 support
specifically for Windows.)

>
> I’ve had asked if people are willing to invest time, effort or money
> into keeping the Windows support alive. I would rather accept an
> external contributor with a commitment rather than just a fat cheque,
> because Windows support isn’t really something we are putting our
> heart in.
>

My point is that if BIND is "highly portable", a contributor's heart
would be in making it making it work on a wide variety of platforms,
not on making it work a specific platform that they have a particular
interest in.

>
> The ISC is working on improving BIND 9 day and night (in fact, it’s
> almost 11pm here), and we are spread thin, and we have to prioritise.
> And if I had to answer the question whether I and my team should
> spend time improving BIND 9 just for everybody or invest the precious
> time into fixing yet another incompatibility between POSIX/SUSv2 and
> Windows world, I think the answer would be always: Let’s improve
> things for majority of our users. It’s just simple as that.
>

If this is the way you want to go, why not declare that that BIND is
for Unix-like systems and systems that can emulate this environment only
and have people who want this get behind it?  Why the pretence that it is
"highly portable" and that it could be used satisfactorily in a very
different environment such as Windows without generating difficulty and
conflict?  Then I can be on my way as there is nothing further to interest
me here.

I'm sorry that this probably does not seem helpful to the people who would
rather the BIND 9 for Windows situation to continue as it has been but at
least it may be clearer to them as to why they are in the situation they
are in.

Regards,
Peter Coghlan

> 
> Ondrej
> --
> Ondřej Surý (He/Him)
> ondrej at isc.org
> 
>> On 4. 6. 2021, at 20:37, Peter Coghlan <bind at beyondthepale.ie> wrote:
>> 
>> What I find ironic is that here:
>> 
>> https://gitlab.isc.org/isc-projects/bind9/-/blob/main/README.md
>> 
>> the very first line says:
>> 
>> "BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) is a complete, highly portable
>> implementation of the Domain Name System (DNS) protocol."
>> 
>> If this were truly the case, BIND would work on Windows (or any other
>> platform that doesn't have a "u" in it's name) with minimal effort
>> and would not require specific funding to adapt it to any particular
>> platform.
>> 
>> Can we please have a realistic definition of what BIND is and what
>> it's objectives are?
>> 
>> I for one would be more likely to contribute to the development of
>> a non-platform-specific, portable BIND than a single-platform-specific
>> one.
>> 
>> On the other hand, if it has already been decided that BIND can only
>> realistically be implemented in the *u* arena and will rely on
>> facilities only available in this arena, then shouldn't this be stated
>> clearly instead of also declaring that it is highly portable?
>> 
>> Regards,
>> Peter Coghlan.
>> 
>>> 
>>> Do you understand how ironic is for you to complain about “subscription is
>>> not going to happen” while **every** email on the mailing list has this
>>> note in the footer:
>>> 
>>> ISC funds the development of this software with paid support subscriptions.
>>> Contact us at https://www.isc.org/contact/ for more information.
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Ondřej Surý — ISC (He/Him)
>>> 
>>> My working hours and your working hours may be different. Please do not feel obligated to reply outside your normal working hours.
>>> 
>>>> On 4. 6. 2021, at 19:47, Peter via bind-users <bind-users at lists.isc.org> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On 04/06/2021 6:05 pm, John Thurston wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> On 6/4/2021 8:48 AM, Peter via bind-users wrote: 
>>>>>> When people find out2024 is the year bind is no longer supported for 
>>>>>> windows people aregoing to be upset this all seems to be done quietly 
>>>>>> nothing posted on the the isc.org site about this just how many people 
>>>>>> depend on bind for windows will be shocking. 
>>>>> 
>>>>> And griping about the decision on the mailing list is annoying. 
>>>>> 
>>>>> If you want to alter the decision, bring something new to the discussion. Funding to pay for the windows development team? Logistical support for the project? 
>>>>> 
>>>>> Anything constructive will be better received than repeating "I don't like your decision". 
>>>>> 
>>>> Yes John Thurston I said about a subscription here which I guess will not happen if they made up thier mind its likly no going to happen.  
>>>> 
>>>> Deprecating BIND 9.18+ on Windows (or making it community improved and supported (isc.org)
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Please visit https://lists.isc.org/mailman/listinfo/bind-users to unsubscribe from this list
>>>> 
>>>> ISC funds the development of this software with paid support subscriptions. Contact us at https://www.isc.org/contact/ for more information.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> bind-users mailing list
>>>> bind-users at lists.isc.org
>>>> https://lists.isc.org/mailman/listinfo/bind-users
>> _______________________________________________
>> Please visit https://lists.isc.org/mailman/listinfo/bind-users to unsubscribe from this list
>> 
>> ISC funds the development of this software with paid support subscriptions. Contact us at https://www.isc.org/contact/ for more information.
>> 
>> 
>> bind-users mailing list
>> bind-users at lists.isc.org
>> https://lists.isc.org/mailman/listinfo/bind-users
>