Robert Brockway wrote:
There are many ways to contribute to OSS. The only reason I am posting into this thread is because I see a problem with an otherwise fantastic distro. It happens that many others are voicing exactly the same problem. I am trying to offer constructive criticism. The responses are similar to those given when this has been raised in the past. I hope Debian picks up the cycle a bit otherwise I think it will be less successful in the future and this will be a terrible shame.
I understand and I do think you bring up some valid points. I like Debian because it's in constant motion (using Sid). I also think apt is one of the best tools Linux has to offer. Would it be so bad for Debian to become a foundation (an "abstract base class" if you will) for derivative work? In other words leave its use (in pure form) to the elite and just use it as a foundation for user distros like Ubuntu, Linspire, Xandros, etc... I think this would actually be a better route to travel. This way we could continue to provide tons of packages and rely on outside organizations to refine those repositories so that a smaller subset could produce quicker release cycles. Sure one could could argue where is the glory in this but look at all the work Linus and his team does that most users take for granted. The kernel is viewed as just another part of every distro. It doesn't lessen the importance of such work. I mean we aren't after fame right? We do this because we believe in the philosophy of open source and free software and we're trying to make the world a better place to compute. Imagine a server based derivative of Debian. Being able to remove all the X apps would surely allow someone to produce a cutting edge version geared solely at the server market. Debian provides a lot of potential and when users leave to go use Ubuntu then I don't see this as a loss at all. Those users rely on Ubunut who in turn relies on Debian. Wouldn't you agree? -Eric -- "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school." - Albert Einstein
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