Time for a Linux Consolidation?

An anonymous reader writes "Are there too many Linux distributions currently available? Can there be too many? This article explores the effect of the large number of distros out right now and suggests that progress could possibly be made through a consolidation. The article is more focused on Linux on the desktop but the ideas presented would impact the entire community, especially as it is seen as a rival to Windows." From the article: "One of the less widely recognized reasons why Linux has not yet toppled Windows, despite it many advantages, is how divided the resources available to Linux are. With dozen of different distributions the Linux community is so diffuse that the power or significance of any specific entity is severally limited."

Comments

Too much choice is BAD

[Mantus]

One of the things that has bothered me about many linux pundits is that they claim that choice between different distros, desktop managers and toolkits (particularly QT and GTK) is a good thing. While this may make a small number of computer users happier, many users see that as a significant shortfall to the overall usability.

Is there a choice in kernel? NO you build it to suit your needs from a common source tree, even though there are multiple X servers they all do the same thing and some (x.org and xfree) had the same code base, only a license change created the push for x.org, so why have so many desktop managers? I can understand a couple (1 for eye candy, 1 for speed) but only if they are using the same toolkit. Package management is another significant hurdle, there are many great managers out there, but why should a dev be expected to make a .deb and a .rpm?