I agree with you ideally. I (and many others) have been suggesting the creation of a base distro for some time. It just makes sense. It costs everyone less while promoting interoperability which promotes Linux. It has seemed like many see other distros as the enemy when there are many other enemies lurking in the dark places just hoping that the distros will tear each other apart. I only hope that the competition felt by fellow distros makes each stronger so that when the real "enemies" try to stop Linux, Linux distributors will be honed and polished into what the users/companies want and need, virtually negating the effects of any potential onslaught by non-Linux entities.
The scary part is that, while each distributor has done a great deal of growth, they have struggled in a steep learning curve for some time. I'm hoping they don't screw this up. I'm taking note that some of Caldera employees are going to SuSE for employment and that SuSE is the distro being converted into UnitedLinux. I'm assuming that is for several reasons. SuSE is German in origin and therefore is not governed by American law at it's base. That leaves the UnitedLinux distro a non-US entity which allows for more freedom in some cases (like FreeSWAN) and acceptance. SuSE has a lot of acceptance in the EU, as well as the rest of the world. Since Caldera is cutting back and SuSE is hiring, it makes me wonder if SuSE isn't going to be doing the most contributing, or perhaps a spinoff of SuSE will be formed as a NPO in order to create/maintain the UnitedLinux core. SuSE is still one of the top contenders in the Desktop space, although their distro is very stable as a server... if only they fix YAST so it READS standard configs, not just overwriting them. I guess I'm doubly scared because Caldera is still my distro of choice for both desktop and server and I don't see that changing in the near future. They are focusing on server only and talking about a very scary Novellesque licensing scheme, which would really bite. In coming to Linux, I have worked very hard to stay away from pirated software so I would be forced to choose another distro for both server and desktop (one I could afford), whereas I find plenty of uses for COL, both as a server and desktop. I am excited to see that the number of piss-poor, various versions of RPM's will be diminished (at least I CERTAINLY HOPE that is what happens). Having read the RPM vs. DEB article, however, I wonder if I'm not spinning my wheels there too. Anyway, I agree with you that joining efforts could be a very good thing. On Thu, 20 Jun 2002 12:39:01 -0400 "Brian Witowski" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > After checking the UnitedLinux web site, I have to say, this is the > smartest thing anybody's done for Linux in quite some time. All the > different distros, package managers etc only serve to confuse matters > from the end-users' point of view. _______________________________________________ Linux-users mailing list - http://linux-sxs.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-users Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Archives,and Digests are located at the above URL.
