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Linux Approaching A Fork In The Road?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the yet-another-zd-yawner dept.

Hai|_ Hai|_ writes "Linux vs. Linux? ZDNet has an interesting article about the potential for a forking of Linux distributions into incompatible OSes. " Nothing we haven't seen before, the article just basically says "Linux could fork". Well duh, welcome to open source. The bigger questions are 'Will it' and if it did, 'Would it matter?'

1 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Linux is not forking! by mjuarez · · Score: 3

    Linux, the kernel, will not fork in the foreseeable future, since Linus is maintaining his
    status as mantainer of the kernel source. And, anyone who doesn't have THE kernel maintained by Linus isn't really Linux.

    However, the different distributions, such as RedHat, Caldera, Slackware, have already forked, and have been forked for at least some three years, if I remember correctly. The distributions will have to get in-line with some standard, such as the Linux Standard Base (LSB), so that compatibility among distributions is guaranteed, but that is another entire matter.

    This is not to say that compatibility among distributions of packages or applications should not be important. It IS very important. However, Linux, the kernel, is not forking anytime soon. The different distributions, usually based on some
    GNU/Linux combination, have already forked, and a long time ago at that, so what's the big deal?