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Linux to Fragment?
King_B writes "news.com has an article in which Sun's COO Ed Zander addresses the competition. One point to note is his prophecy concerning the eventual fragmentation of linux into non-compatible vendor-specific linuces. " Doesn't really say anything new, but nothing else seems to be happening today *grin*. People have been preaching about fragmenting Linux for years but it hasn't happened. And even if it did, I somehow doubt it would matter all that much. But it still gives COOs something to talk about I guess.
I think that today they are more compatible than two years ago. However if you look at any two distributions it does not take a rocket scientist to figure that they are binary none compatible. Differnet libraries exist in each distro. Each program can be compiled against different version of the libraries with different parameters adn settings (configure --what options you pick). That is why Linux is Open Source and you get the source. You then compile the program yourself. This then becomes a none issue. So what? So I cannot take a binary from SuSE and install in Redhat. I can still build the rpm myself or get the tar ball. It's not that difficult.
I don't want a lot, I just want it all!
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How is this not true? RedHat decides to take a certain version of the kernel, KDE, a peculiar flavor of gcc, and some other stuff, RedHat-ize it, and make a distribution out of it. Debian chooses another version of the kernel, Gnome, uses apt-get, and has a different distribution. Mandrake throws in some nice Mandrakish features. Others yet, take whatever other pieces they want and create a customized flavor of "Linux" (ok, perhaps not a customized codebase). We champion this as serving different needs. But isn't it still true that the same process has the potential for many conflicts? File system formats, hierarchy standards (file system standard and LSB notwithstanding), versions of applications, system policies, configuration tools, init scripts, custom scripts, etc. For all intents and purposes, Linux, as seen by the consumer, is fragmented. I think there should be a strong cohesive force to keep Linux, as the gestalt system, not just kernel, on track. Maybe LSB is it. Maybe not.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
Hey, Ed Zander lived through the BSD/Bell religious schism, the fragmentation of the vendor Unixes and the Unix International -vs- OSF standards wars. Of course he's going to worry about fragmentation: his career's been spent fighting it. That said, I think he's wrong: the older members of the Linux community also remember those years, and will "educate" the community. With a large hammer, if necessary (:-))
davecb@spamcop.net
If you're referring to Linux as the whole OS with all the good little tools, applications, etc., then it has already fragmented.
I've been using Red Hat Linux for quite a while now, and I could comfortably work in most any version of the distribution. But plop me on a Caldera machine and I start to get lost quickly. Debian uses yet another file structure and configuration scheme. I haven't even used Slackware since the days of downloading 40+ floppies, but I know they've got their own standards. And don't forget the other distributions: Mandrake, StormLinux, Corel, etc, etc. Although many of them are just modifications of other distros.
I think this will just get worse over time. Right now, it doesn't take too much time to learn how a new distro is put together. But, with the addition of all these graphical configuration tools (linuxconf, yast, etc) that are very particular to each distro, it won't be too long before you're spending an hour just to figure out to tell sshd to not allow root logins.
...big, bad Sun has said that Linux is going to fragment!!! Well, since Sun said it, it must be true... after all, they *are* the dot in dot com.
*snicker*
This is one of the great scare tactics used by both Microsoft and Sun to get the PHBs to avoid Linux. Linux has not fragmented, and probably won't for a long, long time, if ever. Too many of the key players (Red Hat, Caldera, Mandrake, Turbolinux, et al) have too much in stake with Linux to allow it to fragment into incompatable operating systems. I think it is more likely that Microsoft will give up on their appeal than for this to happen... hehe
wolf31o2 Developer, Gentoo Linux Games Team
What they seem to forget is that Open Source projects like Linux excell at bringing out standards. Further more, it is standards that allow the highly compatible environments (like the Internet) that we all enjoy working in. Linux developers have always tried to bring Linux in line with standards and have contributed to creating new standards. Most of what we use, HTTP, FTP, SMTP, POP3 haven't been developed by the closed source developers like Microsoft and Sun. Rather they have been hacked out by a group of distributed people working openly to produce something that is not fragmented. In contrast, it is peole like Microsoft that always try to do things against the standards and hence fragment themselves from the rest. (Front page server extensions as an example).
It therefore seems absurd to even talk about Linux fragmenting. In reality they should talk more about Linux providing a solution that will work on many different architectures and providing high interoperability with other Operating Systems like Windows and Mac (through SAMBA, Appletalk, etc) let alone other Unices. Let alone other Linux distributions!!
perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10);'