Re: Debian, universal operating system?
I have also some thoughs about DPL talk:
Debian is NOT an universal operating system.
Debian is going in direction to be an universal collection
of OSes.
1- One size fits all ?
IMHO the "universal os" seems to imply this. I don't agree.
We need different solutions. IMHO embedian is an example
of this: still in Debian framework, but I think it is a different
OS (but still "Debian"). So Debian is more than one OS.
2- universal is defined by use
I don't care about how any CPUs and architecture we run, but what
use of such machine we do.
Do we run on mobile phone? Yes
"Real" people do this? IMHO not yet
Do we run on mainframes? Yes
Do "real" mainframe people run Debian for their mainframe applications?
I don't know (but we lack of official support to some mainframe
applications).
So IMHO we are not yet universal, but in a good shape: we need real
usage not potential usage to be a universal operating system.
3- Missing applications
BTW we totally lack or real-time support (not the RT for multimedia, in
this case we lack only of manpower) (I mean the RT for some kind of
robots and controllers). According kernel developers, Linux is not
going in such direction and their still discurage use of Linux for
such things. I think it is the same with the BSD family of kernels.
Is this a requirement to be universal?
4- Debian as distribution
I still think that Debian is the "most universal" operating system,
but we are "only" a distribution. We are packers (packagers).
I think some task in direction of universal OSes should be done
upstream, outside Debian. We give programmers a good distribution,
so they can develop quicker and better. We give programmers DFSG,
we maybe give programmers some resources, but IMO the developement
should be done outside Debian.
To conclude: we are not yet the OS for all people/all uses, but
we are surely the better OS/distribution that can do this.
YES!
cate
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