Philosophy & Approach

Our Core Philosophy

The idea of Canopy is to provide a stable baseline for OpenBMC. We believe that enterprise environments need both the latest innovations from the OpenBMC community and the reliability that comes with extensive testing and long-term support.

Rather than forcing organizations to choose between innovation and stability, Canopy delivers both through a carefully balanced dual approach to release management and upstream integration.

The Dual Approach

Stability & Trust

Six-month release cycles with extensive testing
Enterprise-grade stability through comprehensive validation
Long-term support (LTS) for production deployments
Rigorous quality assurance before each release

Cutting-Edge Innovation

Daily rebases to track OpenBMC upstream closely
Minimal testing on daily builds for rapid feedback
Latest features from the OpenBMC community
Continuous integration with upstream developments

Best of Both Worlds

This dual approach means Canopy users benefit from:

🚀 Innovation Without Risk

Access the latest OpenBMC features and improvements without compromising system stability.

🛡️ Enterprise Confidence

Deploy with confidence knowing each release undergoes extensive testing and validation.

🔄 Flexible Deployment Options

Choose between stable releases for production or daily builds for development and testing.

📈 Long-term Support

Benefit from LTS releases that provide security updates and critical fixes over extended periods.

Developer Enablement

Part of our core philosophy is developer enablement. We love developers, and we are developers as well! We want to provide more value for developers by easing out the development process.

How do we do that?

Extra Development Tools

We provide additional tools and utilities that make OpenBMC development easier and more productive, complementing the standard upstream toolchain.

Streamlined Configuration

We streamline the OpenBMC configuration process to make customization easier, reducing complexity and setup time for new projects.

Prebuilt Binaries

We provide prebuilt binaries for supported boards to lower the barrier to entry and reduce the time needed to get started with development.

Automation

We provide a fully automated CI/CD pipeline as part of our daily rebase against upstream. Let's use 21th century development tools to make our life easier.

Release Strategy

Our release strategy is designed to serve different use cases within your organization:

Daily Builds

Automatic rebases from OpenBMC upstream with basic smoke testing. Perfect for development, early testing, and staying current with the latest features.

Stable Releases (Every 6 Months)

Thoroughly tested releases that undergo extensive validation, security audits, and compatibility testing. Ideal for production deployments.

LTS Support

Extended support for stable releases with security patches, critical bug fixes, and enterprise-level support commitments.

Enterprise Use Cases

This philosophy specifically addresses the needs of enterprise environments that require:

Predictable Release Cycles - Plan deployments around our six-month stable release schedule
Validation and Testing - Comprehensive testing ensures compatibility and reliability
Security Assurance - Regular security audits and timely patch delivery
Support Commitments - Long-term support with defined service level agreements
Documentation - Thorough documentation for deployment, configuration, and troubleshooting
Migration Paths - Clear upgrade paths between releases with migration guides

Community Connection

While Canopy provides enterprise stability, we remain deeply connected to the OpenBMC community:

Daily upstream tracking ensures we don't drift from the community
Contributions flow back to OpenBMC from our testing and validation work
Bug fixes and improvements are shared with the broader community
We participate actively in OpenBMC governance and technical discussions