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Bruce Perens on the new Debian Common Core

Posted by Hemos on from the talking-with-the-friends dept.

StromPetroke writes "On August 9th, online Linuxzine Mad Penguin conducted an interview with veteran Open Source advocate Bruce Perens on the DCC (Debian Common Core) Alliance. According to Bruce, the DCC will provide a way to "be able to certify to a Linux distribution, and then there will be multiple support providers who can support that same platform and who differentiate themselves at a higher level up the stack.""

5 of 21 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Sounds great and all ... but ... by ivan256 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Woah... Calm down for a second...

    Have you ever used Debian or a Debian based distribution? Config files - hell, any type of file - locations are standardized even if it means modifying the source of an app to change the default locations. Package versioning is standardized. Package renames are well handled. You can easily upgrade from version to version and still understand (for the most part) how the OS works and is laid out. Best of all, you can generally expect that your upgrade will actually work because of the well maintained package repository which keeps dependencies in line.

    You want standards? Here's some reading for you. It may just turn you into a Debian user: http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/

  2. A step in the right direction by DrMowinckel · · Score: 2, Insightful

    To me, this is clearly a step in the right direction. I have long been seing the rising number of debian-forks to be a problem for compability and a spreading of resources. In a DCCA world the high number of distributions would be an advantage, since each compliant distro can cater to a specific subset of users, while the community at large will still be able to cooperate cross-distro.

    The fact that Ubuntu (the distro currently on my desktop) is not a member of the DCCA does not bother me very much. The whole initiative of invoking standards is the important idea. If the standard is made, I am sure Ubuntu and other non-DCCA debian forks/branches will follow suit.

    --
    In soviet Russia, Raymond loves Everybody, including, but not limited to, YOU!
    1. Re:A step in the right direction by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 2, Informative
      Debian derivatives, taken together, have 3 times the market share of SuSe/Novell. Why not get them working together more effectively?

      I'm working today on getting more Open Source into Department of Defense, and won't be able to participate any more in this thread. But I will read it all later, and you can always email me (bruce@perens.com). No phone calls today, but as always my number's on my web site.

      Bruce

      --
      Bruce Perens.
  3. Re:We're certifying Debian Distributions? by thephotoman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, using , Debian is the most popular base for distributions. In fact, they list 129 distributions at this time that are based on Debian. This includes some rather heavy hitting distributions like Knoppix, MEPIS/SimplyMEPIS, and Ubuntu, as well as some nonstandard Debian distros like Xandros and Linspire (both of which make me feel dirty just for even mentioning them in the same breath as Debian).

    However, most of those distros are binary compatable with Debian, with the exceptions of Xandros and Linspire, which take a bit of work. Yeah, even Ubuntu is compatable, if you can work out the library dependencies.

    --
    Haec merda tauri est. Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
  4. Re:We're certifying Debian Distributions? by Burz · · Score: 2, Insightful

    some nonstandard Debian distros like Xandros and Linspire (both of which make me feel dirty just for even mentioning them in the same breath as Debian).

    I've heard this off-hand comment before.

    In what way are they non-standard or "dirty"?