> They're not writing blog posts or comments on HN, they're writing code.
Actually, the problem is that 90% of the code still remains to be written, while others (including me) have already done so. They've addressed only the very simplest part of the problem, not even far enough to show any performance comparisons, in a manner strongly reminiscent of Sheepdog (belying your "own approach" claim). That's a poor basis from which to promise so much. It's like writing an interpreter for a simple programming language and claiming it'll be a full optimizing C++ compiler soon. Just a few little pieces remaining, right?
It's perfectly fine for them to start their own project and have high hopes for it. The more the merrier. However, I have little patience for people who blur the lines between what's there and what might hypothetically exist some time in the future. That's far too often used to stifle real innovation that's occurring elsewhere. Maybe it's more common in storage than whatever your specialty is, but it's a well known part of the playbook. It's important to be crystal clear about what's real vs. what's seriously thought out vs. what's total blue-sky. Users and fellow developers deserve nothing less.
to have a near production ready system is way easier than setting up glusterfs (even as a demo) and ceph. A distributed system doesn't need to be complicated.
But that's not even the point. You're right that the interface to a distributed storage system doesn't need to be complicated, but the implementation inevitably must be to handle the myriad error conditions that will be thrown at it. Correctness is even more important for storage than for other areas in computing, and something that only implements the "happy path" for the simplest data model or semantics is barely even a beginning. The distance between "seems to work" and "can be counted on to work" is far greater for this type of system than for most others. I think it's important to understand and communicate that, so that people don't develop unrealistic expectations. That way lies nothing but heartbreak, not least for the developers themselves. It's far better for everyone to set and meet modest goals than to make extravagant promises that can't be kept.
Actually, the problem is that 90% of the code still remains to be written, while others (including me) have already done so. They've addressed only the very simplest part of the problem, not even far enough to show any performance comparisons, in a manner strongly reminiscent of Sheepdog (belying your "own approach" claim). That's a poor basis from which to promise so much. It's like writing an interpreter for a simple programming language and claiming it'll be a full optimizing C++ compiler soon. Just a few little pieces remaining, right?
It's perfectly fine for them to start their own project and have high hopes for it. The more the merrier. However, I have little patience for people who blur the lines between what's there and what might hypothetically exist some time in the future. That's far too often used to stifle real innovation that's occurring elsewhere. Maybe it's more common in storage than whatever your specialty is, but it's a well known part of the playbook. It's important to be crystal clear about what's real vs. what's seriously thought out vs. what's total blue-sky. Users and fellow developers deserve nothing less.