Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 00:35:44 +0100 From: Cliff Sarginson <cliff@raggedclown.net> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Linux distro fragmentation and FreeBSD Message-ID: <20011203003544.B2208@raggedclown.net> In-Reply-To: <200112021025.20398@starbreaker.net> References: <20011201160028.69170.qmail@web20902.mail.yahoo.com> <200112021025.20398@starbreaker.net>
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On Sun, Dec 02, 2001 at 10:43:28AM -0500, Matthew Graybosch wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > There's also what I see as a fragmentation of the Linux distro > market. For the most part, each of the major distros (RH, SuSE, > Debian, Mandrake, Slackware, etc.) each seem to do things slightly > differently in their definition of a "base system". More than *slightly* differently. SuSE is increasingly doing things that lock their users into them. > other than the kernel and the GNU tools every distro does things > differently. > > Slackware Slackware is the FreeBSD of Linux, System V init is kind of tucked away somewhere if you really want it. > > While I'm not advocating a monopoly for any one $DISTRO, I do think > that if the individual distributors don't start comparing notes and > putting together some kind of definitive standard on base Linux > systems, then the Linux market could end up like the commercial Unix > market -- fragmented, marginalized, and unable to appeal to a broad > range of users. I think that users should be able to learn basic > Linux skills on a particular distro and be able to apply those > skills to any distro. I am afraid that commercially speaking the beancounters would not allow it. If Redhat and Suse were the same, then it would not matter which one you bought, so one of them would presumably go out of business. I believe some committee has decided that the de-facto package management system should be RPM (despite the superiority of Debian's system, but then Debian isn't a commercial system). > > Then again, maybe people can do that already. Maybe I'm just > bullshitting, but I remember reading that once a person learned > FreeBSD he could apply his knowledge to just about any Unix out > there. I like that. That is true of general Unix skills, but most Unices do use System V philosophies. There is a problem with learning your Unix skills on either of FreeBSD or Linux. That is that both of them are easier to manage, easier to use and easier to learn than any of the many commercial Unices I have worked on (which is a lot). HP-UX is a System Manager's nightmare. Solaris comes with a cute piece of software called a "license-manager" which has such a set of arcane rules about how it works that it can only have been dreamt up by someone with a grudge against humanity. About the only thing AIX has in common with UNIX is the letter "X". ICL DRS/NX .. well don't even mention that in mixed company. And then there is (was) SCO Open Server, SPIX, BOSX, Ultrix, Dynix... I always rather liked Xenix myself. Very cute, especially for programmers, you could avoid the need for brain-surgery in order to understand System V semaphores, since Xenix had it's own rather more traditional and simpler implementation of IPC. And it ran on an 80286. -- Regards Cliff To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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