Re: Was the release of Debian 2.0 put on
As a newbie to Linux and Debian I have to say I almost entirely agree
with George, and had even thought about writting something on this
subject myself. Before I understood about the numbering system it
really threw me for a loop to hear that my ISP was using Debian 1.1
(he's very conservative), but that Red Hat was on 5.1 . I was like
"huh? is this all the same OS we're talking about here? Then my ISP
said "well the kernal is only stable at version 1.(something or
other - which was true at the time a few months back). And what that
did was to enlighten me that their might be some OTHER numbers
besides the distrib # that I should pay attention to. This is really
quite confusing to the newcomer, and a good comparison number
(perhaps the LSB?) would be very useful so that people can shop for
distributions intelligently. I don't think we need to erect any
artificial barriers to entry -- learning Linux is already challenging
enough. It would be great to be able to focus on just one number.
My perception is that Linux is on the verge of an explosion. I can
use myself as an example. I am not the kind of guy who just likes to
fool with technical stuff for the hell of it -- like that amusing
exchange yesterday between a couple of guys commenting about how
Debian was getting too easy to use and that they had to break things
intentionally to make life exciting. ;-) Linux has been largely
founded on this kind of person so far. But now you are about to see
the next wave hit. I (and others like me) am the kind of
forward-looking person who when I see the usefulness of something, I
jump on it (but not until its use becomes appearent and accesible). I
am perpetually ahead of the main body and I am a natural evangelist.
I and people like me lead others who are of the main body into new
endevours (in this case Linux). You might not care for the unwashed
masses, but don't look now, but a very big wave of them is coming our
way.
I know its been comfortable being part of a small, tightly-knit
community. Like it or not though, things are changing. I see the
challenge as this -- is the Debian community scalable? Can we
handle, accept, nay welcome the infusion of fresh ideas and
personalities into our community? Or do we shrink from the challenge
and run away and hide? If we aren't growing (in some sense of the
word, not necessarily numerically) then we are dying. The choice is
ours -- to live and grow or die.
Regards,
Marcus
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