On Wed, 03 Feb 1999 Chris Martin wrote:
I encourage you to repost this under a different heading. I have to admit, I almost didn't read it. But, I am glad I did. It is good to hear intelligent questions/opinions, etc. I am curious whether you think the rather dim future you paint (if status quo remains status quo) means that we should all just switch to RedHat right now? (despite knowing SuSE is nicer)
Thanks for you reaction but I don't think I will repost under a different heading. There have only been 2 reactions from the hundreds(thousands?) of list followers so I do not think they find the subject very interesting. Personally I don't know what to think. I like SuSE, I like RedHat and next month I will also be trying out Debian. I don't think I am willing, at this time, to make any definite choice. They all have nice and irritating features. And I don't think there is any reason, at the moment, to switch from one to the other (except 'personal compatibility and taste' reasons). But it is quite possible that if agreements on a Linux standard base are not reached and implemented we might find that the minor discrepencies between the distributions which occasionaly cause some irritation when switching between distributions might become gradually less minor. I have no idea what the consequences will be. But such a situation might necessitate a definite choice. You might like to look at the pronouncements of RedHat's Bob Young, see: <A HREF="http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-1999-01/lw-01-thesource.html"><A HREF="http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-1999-01/lw-01-thesource.html</A">http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-1999-01/lw-01-thesource.html</A</A>>, on 'balkanization' of Linux. I think they are woolly and not very convincing because he only adresses the 'larger' picture and not the nitty gritty of existing differences. See also a differing view by Ian Nandhra: <A HREF="http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-1998-10/lw-10-thesource2.html"><A HREF="http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-1998-10/lw-10-thesource2.html</A">http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-1998-10/lw-10-thesource2.html</A</A>>, but he stresses the libc-glibc difference too much, the one difference that in the short run will disappear (or become irrelevant). Alexander ------------------------------------- Alexander Volovics Dept of Methodology & Statistics Maastricht University, Maastricht, NL ------------------------------------- - To get out of this list, please send email to majordomo@suse.com with this text in its body: unsubscribe suse-linux-e Check out the SuSE-FAQ at <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/"><A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/</A">http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/</A</A>> and the archiv at <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html"><A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html</A">http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html</A</A>>