the openMosix FAQ

General

Q: What is openMosix?:
Q: What does the term single-image clustering mean?:
Q: Does openMosix have a homepage?:
Q: Are there any mailing lists for openMosix?:
Q: Can I contribute to the openMosix project?:
Q: Who is the copyright holder of openMosix?:
Q: Is openMosix a fork of MOSIX?:
Q: Why did openMosix split from the MOSIX group?:

Q: What is openMosix?:

A: The openMosix system is a Linux kernel extension for single-image clustering. It extends the outstanding MOSIX project, but is instead licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Q: What does the term single-image clustering mean?:

A: There are many varieties of clusters, and a single-image cluster has multiple copies of a single operating system kernel.

Q: Does openMosix have a homepage?:

A: Yes. It is at www.openMosix.org. The SourceForge project page is at http://openmosix.sf.net/

Q: Are there any mailing lists for openMosix?:

A: Yes. There are three:

  1. For general discussion, use mailto:openmosix-general@lists.sourceforge.net, whose general information page is at http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/openmosix-general

  2. For developers, use mailto:openmosix-devel@lists.sourceforge.net, whose general information page is at http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/openmosix-devel

  3. Italian Language openMosix Mailing List hosted by Democritos (the INFM National Simulation Center in Trieste)

Q: Can I contribute to the openMosix project?:

A: Yes. The openMosix effort already has more than 10 contributors. Unlike the Linux kernel maintenance system, Moshe Bar appoints official maintainers and then gives these maintainers the commit bit to the openMosix CVS source tree, similarly to FreeBSD.

Right now we are looking for more experienced kernel hackers to work on new features like checkpoint/restart.

Write to mailtomoshe@moelabs.com if you would like to become an openMosix developer.

Q: Who is the copyright holder of openMosix?:

A: All MOSIX code is copyright by Professor Amnon Barak of Hebrew University of Jerusalem. All openMosix code is copyright by Moshe Bar, Tel Aviv. The openMosix system does not contain any non-GPL (i.e. MOSIX) code.

Q: Is openMosix a fork of MOSIX?:

A: Originally, openMosix was a fork of MOSIX, but it has evolved into an advanced clustering platform. The openMosix system no longer contains any non-GPL (i.e. MOSIX) code.

Compared to MOSIX, a number of features were added:

A port to the UML (User-mode Linux) architecture
New and cleaner migration code
A better load balancer
Much reduced kernel latencies
Support for Dolphin and IA64
A greatly simplified installation processes that uses RPM packaging
A wealth of documentation

Q: Why did openMosix split from the MOSIX group?:

A: The principal issue was that MOSIX was not licensed with an Open Source license.