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United Linux is Here

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the who-really-cares dept.

pstreck writes "Red Hat watch out! Caldera, Conectiva, SuSE and Turbolinux have made good on their promise and United Linux is here! According to their website 'United Linux is a standards-based Linux operating system targeted at the business user. It is developed, marketed and sold by an experienced partnership of Linux companies.'" I just don't get it I guess, it just seems like there are already so many standards.

4 of 488 comments (clear)

  1. Re:So what happens to the distributions? by pointwood · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you actually took the time to check the website before asking the question, that is actually explained there:

    Next Steps
    * Each UnitedLinux partner continues to sell Linux under its familiar Linux brand and product, "Powered by UnitedLinux"
    * Caldera OpenLinux "Powered by UnitedLinux"
    * Conectiva Linux "Powered by UnitedLinux"
    * SuSE Linux Enterprise Server "Powered by UnitedLinux"
    * Turbolinux "Powered by UnitedLinux"
    * One core development team benefiting several partners * Other Linux companies invited to join

    Furthermore:

    Competition
    How will Linux companies in UnitedLinux still compete?

    Pricing: Each company will set its own product pricing
    Channels: Retail stores, reseller channels, direct, etc.
    Support: Each company runs its own support team
    Education: Independent training and certification
    Professional Services: Custom implementations
    Applications: Management, administration, messaging, etc.
    OEM: Industry partners still choose products to bundle

  2. Red Hat is not the standard by Epeeist · · Score: 5, Informative
    Unfortunately for SuSe, Caldera, et. al, the standard most American businesses are choosing is Red Hat.

    Emphasis and addition mine.

    I think you will find that outside of America the picture is quite different, with SuSE and Mandrake doing well in Europe and TurboLinux doing well in the far east.

  3. Re:This is a wonderful thing.. by _Sprocket_ · · Score: 5, Informative


    2) This gives everyone more competition. If I remember correctly, SUSE or Mandrake was THE Linux distro to get. Red Hat came along and pushed the bar. Whether or not you like Red Hat or not, they have made a major impact in the Linux world.

    I completely agree that competition is good. Standards aren't proven to be good by decree; they must be proven in a trial by fire. They must compete with other ideas and (marketing and politics aside) rise on their own merrits.


    However, I think you're a bit off on your distro timeline. I seem to remember RedHat being the first push towards a commercial Linux distro. SUSE came down the line. Mandrake was a test of the Linux fabric - it started pretty much as RedHat with KDE (quickly differentiating itself with its own install apps, diskdrake, and other nifty contributions to the community). But RedHat was there first pushing in to the US market with business components the IT Industry has been used to seeing from a commercial OS vendor.



    Here is the simple truth, I was once a tech. I loved learning all the arcane commands and symbols, but I don't have time for that anymore. I need stuff that helps me work faster, better and *simpler*. That is what Windows *does* have in its favor currently. Most things are just a few dialog boxes away and I'm done. I'm waiting for that in Linux and I hope with a decree that they are going after business that they will realize that business isn't interested in the arcane. They want simple, fast solutions to common tasks.

    I am still a techie. I came from a Windows world and found myself quickly adapting to Unix when an opportunity presented itself. And I discovered that, for the most part, I preferred Unix. I found a degree of simplicity and power in "man foo.cfg" and "vi foo.cfg" that didn't exist in "clicky-clicky". But there was some learning curve and a suprising amount of philosophical change between the two. It comes to no suprise to me that Unix and Windows admins seem to talk two different languages and come from different cultures. Because they do.


    Having said all that... sometimes a GUI is a nice tool to have. HP/UX and Solaris both had config GUIs that were nice to quickly churn out some common admin task (such as adding a couple users). But they were compatible with the old editing flat text files.


    Linux offers that now - although different distros tend to favor different admin GUIs.

  4. KDE 3.0.1 and GCC 3.1 issues by NZheretic · · Score: 5, Informative
    In the UnitedLinux Roadmap it states that both GCC 3.1 and KDE 3.0 are main components.

    I have been trialing GCC 3.1 and the C++ compilation is a major improvement over past version of GCC. Being C based the GNOME 1.4 and GNOME 2 libraries and most applications compiles and runs without too much hassle. However KDE 3.0.1 is somewhat more problematic, even when neither debugging support nor strict syntax checking is enabled..

    This is not the fault of either the KDE or GCC developers. KDE was coded to support the "older" C++ style of pre GCC 2.9x and Microsoft's compilers and the GCC Team is following the new C99 & ISO 14882 C++ standards.

    After kludgeing around the defects in the older GCC C++ template and library implementations, GCC 3.1 C++ is real joy to use. It makes it possible to program C++ in a completely new styles, that IMO can be far more productive.

    It is difficult layering one type of programing style over another, the older C++ style libraries certainly make Windows programing a pain.

    Would it not be better to wait for the KDE team to port KDE to a pure GCC 3.1/ISO 14882 style?

    At the very least the debugging support is required for GCC's Profile Driven Optimizations which can greatly improve application performance.

    GNOME 2.0 is due for release soon enough, at the very least the GNOME libraries and core should also be included at a United Linux "main component".