On 08-Feb-99 Jerry Lynn Kreps wrote:
(Ted Harding) wrote:
The alternative, as Alex says and as has been forcefully said in other places, is "UNIX Wars" all over again. This is what marginalised UNIX for many major software ISVs; the ones that stayed in were mainly those that
Linux has avoided the "Unix Wars" by ignoring those that would rekindle the flames. Personally, I like the independence the Linux allows. Can you imagine if the Qt toolkit was declared the standard and Xwindows programs written without it were shunned? Confine yourself to KDE for the next 10-15 years? Why? Let freedom ring, let inovation flourish.
IŽd like to download a say KDE or gnome rpm, and install it on my Linux system, redardless what distribution, and it should run. IŽd like a Linux even if itŽs a bit "outdated" but stable. None would stop anybody to develope improvements, that enhance or change the standard after say two years. I you want to stay at the front end of developement, well youŽd have to care for yourself. But I am more like Joe User, that wants a stable system and does not like to dive into Makefiles / config issues over and over again.
There will be enought "standardization" by virtue of the number of packages sold, but each should allow some place in their distro for wiggle room so improvements can burst out.
Similar to the developers kernel: Do improvement on another System and use the standard for dayly work. Then after abt. 2 years there is time for a new standard. Then shift to it. Maybe the changes for application software will be marginal.
Jerry
"(Ted Harding)" wrote:
This is also a point of view for which I have strong sympathy.
If the only issue were "what would the community of Linux users, breathing the free air, like", I think the answer would be along Jerry's lines.
quite true. I think that if the field is big enough, you whould not notice the fence. On the other hand, if there is a reason to move the fence further on, do an election and then move it on.
But the current flowering of interest in Linux in the "real software" world (quotation marks deliberate ... ) -- while, at present, the Open Source software for similar purposes continues to lag (and, in the case of Windows compatibility which many of us genuinely need to achieve, continues to be almost lacking except in commercial packages) -- points to a need for a *standard* Linux that any ISV can debelop for and know what the target is.
That is exacly the point. If distributions differ to much youŽll always have little surprises, like the original Staroffice install program not working on SuSE 6.0 (german). The Install program that comes with SuSE 6.0 (german) works. If you have bought the sligtly better version from stardiv, you cant install it on 6.0. You have copy the 6.0Žs setup overwriting stardivs setup. (see german SDB). Easy thing, but you have either someone tell you, work it out the hard way, or forget the install. (further SO setup versions will correct this)
As I pointed out earlier: compare FreeBSD. FreeBSD is what is on the FreeBSD ftp site. There are not 15 versions of it out there, incompatible at a basic level. If you develop for FreeBSD you *know* what it's going to be running on (to within shifts between versions, but that doesn't seem to throw up many problems).
I do not belive there is very much money in selling dists, there is more money in professional support. ThatŽs whatŽs needed as well. And support will be much easier if you do not have to ask about which dist. is used. Small conversation: A: Hi, heared you got ISDN running, havnŽt you? B: Yapp. Works like a charm. A: Can you help me? IŽve got problems. B: What dist do you use. ItŽs no problem with my ******* A: I use ?????????. B: Hmmm. Sorry. Good luck! Juergen -- ========================================== __ _ Juergen Braukmann mail: brauki@cityweb.de| -o)/ / (_)__ __ ____ __ Tel: 0201-743648 dk4jb@db0qs.#nrw.deu.eu| /\\ /__/ / _ \/ // /\ \/ / ==========================================_\_v __/_/_//_/\_,_/ /_/\_\ - 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>>