Re: Debian and Redhat - are most linux users missing the point?
>> Also, I think Red Hat is a "linux virgin" distrib -- first time Linux
>> users have probably only heard of Red Hat, and a lot of people feel
>> the Red Hat installation is easier. Same way with me when I started,
>> but I had only heard of Slackware. Once I knew more about Unix
>> administration and the like, I realized that a better package system
>> must exist, one that's FHS compliant.
>>
>> I don't worry about how many people use Debian, because I figure
>> Debian's user base and developer base will never decrease, and the
>> quality of the Distrib will also never decline. My only concern is a
>> Linux split: things that work for Red Hat, but not Debian, or the
>> other way around. As long as Linux distribs remain compatible with
>> each other, there should be no worry about the distributions.
>
>
> You are perhaps referring the "Linux Standard Base" that RH and
>Deb have, for the moment, agreed to? The problem is that the
>greater RH's dominance becomes, the greater the chance that they
>will no longer see this kind of cooperation as desirable, and in
>effect decide on their own that RH *is* the "Linux Standard
>Base". If they don't try too hard too quickly, then I fear they
>just might get away with it.
Yes that is a real danger - as long as the various distros were seen as
different and approx. equal, it is one thing. But if one (RH looks a likely
candidate) is seen as dominant and the others are seen as fringe, then the
self-sustaining chain reaction will set in. SOmethings will only work well
(or at all) only with RH, because peoplwe write only for it because it has
the user base, because more people write for it ... you get the picture
I started with Slackware four years back, about a year back switched to RH
and a few weeks back succeeded (many earlier failed attempts) in getting
Debian installed. I would hate to see a world where Linux zone is Unipolar
as the commercial software zone.
P Asokan
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