Steven: Thank you for the information. 
 
Martin, Lemsi: Is this of interest to you? 
 
 
 

Andreas, does someone in R&D knows more about that project? Is it worth to consider?

I've added Coolo and Adrian.

This is past 10.0.

You figure, that this has nothing to do with the desktop, right? This  
basically asks for every system service to change their config files to use  
some external library. So I consider elektra pretty uninteresting at the 
moment. It's very unlikely that the elektra patches for our system services 
will be taken upstream and no-one is helped by a second system. So the elektra 
initiative first has to convince the upstream maintainers, _then_ the 
distributions. 

(In reply to comment #4)
> So the elektra 
> initiative first has to convince the upstream maintainers, _then_ the 
> distributions. 

Yes, this is quite unfortunate, but true.  It also depends on SuSE's mission.  If one of SuSE's goals is to provide a well-defined comfortable atmosphere for developers, then yes, SuSE should promote elektra everywhere it can.

If SuSE is just a distribution and wants to stay that way, then, yeah, let's all hope upstream maintainers pick up on elektra.

Currently the situation for ISVs is pretty miserable, and I feel elektra would be a step in the right direction.

I'll look past 10.1 into this.

I started the Elektra Initiative and I am a core developer among others that joined the team.

I'd like to offer any help you may need to include Elektra in SUSE Linux.

Currently, we have pretty generic RPMs that are ready for SUSE Linux.

As a matter of fact, Jerry Carter, from Samba, pointed Elektra as a prefered way to go and proposed it as an idea for Google's Summer of Code at http://www.samba.org/samba/projects/summercode06.html

(In reply to comment #0)
> Many people in the open source world have heard of the Elektra initiative, and
> many have not.  In summary the Elektra initiative is an attempt to clean up the
> configuration system for software in Linux and open source in general.  They are
> trying to more easily regulate configuration info for software and linux systems
> by trying to  provide a consistent format for configuration files.  Many people
> think of the Elektra initiative to be an attempt for a Windows registry system
> for linux, which is both right and wrong.  I certainly don't know enough to
> correctly describe everything about elektra, but I do understand the project
> enough that it is certainly an effort in the right direction.  It is
> substantially different than the windows registry.  I was hoping you guys would
> look into it some.  Its website is:
> 
> http://elektra.sourceforge.net/
> 
> I do understand that such an effort would be an enormous undertaking, but would
> greatly streamline linux systems and help reduce unneccessary complexity as well
> as assisting better integration with software.  Please review their website for
> more detailed info.
> 
> -Chris

Hi, 
I think the integration of Elektra project in Suse Linux distribution is a very good initiative. The decision must be political and strategic while considering, in a balanced way, the opinions of the programmers , the integrators and the end users. However, do not forget that the programmers only exist to execute a schedule of conditions, their role is not strategic or political, but their opinion remains important concerning the possible difficulties at the time of the realization. ISVs need a highly integrated product, a true api for advanced general configuration system, Elektra is a good response. End-user cannot waste its time  to parameterize whole of his system, a single interface is essential, it is also the only way of having an effective public support. 

We're currently not planning to do this ourselves.  This is something that could be done as a separate project in the build service - and if enough users like it, we would then integrate it.