The EDOS Project

<!-- Page header -->
<div class="header">
</div>


<!-- The main links bar -->
<div id="links">
  <!-- space for the <span>legend</span> -->
  <h1></h1>
  <a HREF="members.html">Members <span>Project members</span></A> 
  <a HREF="deliverables.html">Deliverables <span>Official documents</span></A> 
  <a HREF="publications.html">Articles <span>Scientific articles</span></A> 
  <a HREF="software.html">Software <span>EDOS prototypes</span></A> 
</div>

<!-- Description begins -->
<div id="content"> 

  <A HREF=""><img src="EDOS-logo.png" alt="Edos logo" align=right hspace=0></A>
  <p><font size="+1">Sixth Framework Programme - Priority 2 </font></p>
  <p><font size="+1">Information Society Technologies</font></p>

  <br clear=all><hr>


<H2>EDOS: Environment for the Distribution of Open Source software</H2>

 <P>The Open Source and Free Software movement now touches a
very large and growing community of users. The GNU/Linux operating system
for instance has an estimated 18 million users worldwide. The number of
contributing developers can vary between several hundred and several
thousand. Open Source and Free Software has a critical mass of developers to
choose from.  </P>

<P>This has helped to ensure high quality for open source
software, and has given end-users a real alternative to using proprietary
software. The Open Source community will continue to grow over the coming
years.</P>

<P> However, despite this success, there are important problems in the
production of Open Source operating systems on a large scale that will
become even more significant as the number of users grows.</P>

<H3>The goals</H3>

 <P>Open source distribution editors package and assemble a large number of
programs and applications into a single tested distribution, together with a
set of tools to install and administer the system. </P>

 <P>Two key functions performed by distribution editors are: 
 <UL>
 <LI> Producing a new version of a distribution: starting from a complete
 version of the distribution, the editor adds, deletes, reconfigure, and
 updates packages with respect to the external sources, etc.

 <LI> Customizing a distribution for a specific user: this includes adding,
 deleting, updating and configuring packages. 
 </UL>
The main objective of this project is to develop technology and tools to
support and improve these two processes.

<H3>The challenges</H3>
To pursue our goals, we will use formal methods, coming from the academic research groups in the
project, to address in a novel way three outstanding problems:
<UL>
  <LI> dependency management among large, heterogeneous collections of software packages
  <LI> testing and QA for large, complex software systems
  <LI> the efficient distribution of large software systems, using peer-to-peer and
       distributed data-base technology
</UL>



<!-- Page footer -->
<div class="footer">
  <hr>
  <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer">
<img src="vh40.gif" width=88
  height=31 border=0 alt="Valid HTML 4.0" align=right>
  </a>
</div>

</div>
<!-- Description ends -->