Steven Schafer On The Future of Progeny

Eugenia writes: "Last month Progeny Linux Systems ceased development on their own distribution in order to focus on selling professional services. In their announcement, the company cited the prohibitive cost of developing and publishing a distro. This move marked another firm in the wave of tech companies, Linux and otherwise, making significant changes to adjust to the market slump. Progeny's distribution was based on Debian GNU/Linux, and many in the Linux community were closely watching the company because it was founded by Debian creator Ian Murdock. OSNews spoke to the President of Progeny Linux Systems, Michael Schafer, once the dust had settled on his company's announcement."

Comments

This isn't horrible.

[robvasquez]

We have too many distros as it is. I'm sure there are a few that offer unique things, but many are just there.

Imagine if everyone made their own Windows!

Now, when Slackware decides to close up shop, let us know!

How many distributions do we need?

[Liquor]

All we don't need is more distributions of the same thing. On the otherhand, expertise in making an already good distribution do exactly what a client wants should be a valuable commodity.

For that matter, having proprietary tools (NOT part of any distribution) to help you manage a customers system could be quite useful - the tools don't have to be applicable to any possible configuration the way most distribution supplied tools do.

Nowhere should open source insist that companies be non-profit.

Re:Porting the Progeny Installer to Woody

[Daniel]

Following the advice of seasoned users

Be careful about people who call themselves "seasoned users", they often don't know what they're talking about.

upgraded to kernel 2.4.13, which required stuff from "unstable"

Adrian Bunk has prepared packages to run 2.4 kernels on stable, available here

a) download the files to my desktop Mandrake system over a slow phone line, following dependencies by hand while trying to remember what I had already downloaded to not duplicate effort

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FWIW, I gave up on Debian last night and am installing Mandrake, which, yes, I was able to walk into a store and purchase off the shelf, and which I've installed on other systems before.

Allow me to tell you a parable:

A man wished to purchase a car. He had to choose between an offering from Ford and an offering from Mitsubishi. (no reason for choosing these, they're just the first car companies that spring to mind)

So, in search of expert advice, he went to the house of his friend Fred, the amateur mechanic. Fred put his own cars together from spare parts all the time, and the man knew that he would have the answers. He found Fred in his garage, tinkering with some unidentifiable piece of metal in an engine.

"Fred," the man said, "should I buy a Ford or a Mitsubishi?" Fred paused, wiping some grime off his face, and said, "well, my last couple cars were Fords. You can get 'em real cheap if you buy the spare parts the factories would throw away anyway. Got my last car that way, and she's a beaut!"

So the man headed off to the local car factory, planning to buy the parts. He faithfully bought each part on a list Fred had made. This was very hard, because he had to buy each part from a separate factory, and he had to carry the parts home by hand, not having a car. Worse, he had to return several parts when he bought the wrong one.

After spending much time and money, he finally decided that Fred was wrong. Going to a local car dealer, he walked in and said, "I want a Mitsubishi." The dealer was helpful and cooperative, and an hour later, the man drove away in his new Mitsubishi, vowing never to purchase Ford again.

Now, one would think this man did not do the most wise thing possible -- after all, who would try to buy a car in parts, then compare it to buying a car from a dealer? But that sort of comparison is exactly what you're making.

If you've got the laptop set up, you should probably just leave it. But in the future you might want to do some simple research, including finding vendors who sell CDs of Debian. I understand that CheapBytes is particularly popular.

You might consider waiting, however, until Woody is released, as it will be a major step forward in terms of included software. Currently, it looks like Woody will be released sometime in December or January...but don't quote me on that.

Daniel