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.

Comments

yawn.. no kidding..

[josepha48]

Uh, news flash this guy is behind the times. The distributions are already in some sense binary none compatible. That is one of the reasons why the LSB was formed.

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!
Flame away, I have a hose!

Thinking seriously

[Hard_Code]

The thing with Linux today--I call it the bathtub. I can throw source in there. It's all floating around and it's available to everybody. But I as a vendor can take anything I want out of that bathtub and call it Linux.

Now if you think that's going to work for application developers, call me in a year or two when IBM's Linux is different than HP's Linux is different than Dell's Linux and (a customer) will have to recompile five times. You've broken it effectively. So you cannot depend on one Linux.

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 has already fragmented

[gregholt]

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.