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Bruce Perens on UserLinux and Ubuntu
SDenmark writes "Ever wondered what happened to UserLinux, and how it's faring now that Ubuntu has stolen the spotlight? Linux Format has an interview with Bruce Perens, founder of UserLinux, the Open Source Initiative and Linux Standard Base. Perens discusses the impact of Ubuntu, how industry bodies are helping open source and why figureheads are important for the Free Software community."
Fear and Loathing in La SuSE (They've got the lizards, just need some product placement).
Honey I Shrunk the Embedded Ubuntu.
Star Wars XV: Attack of the CentOS (Didn't this happen in Tuttle, OK?)
Miss Fedora Universe (Make the Geeks go crazy for models in Fedoras)
A Beautiful Distro (A Linspiring movie)
OK, I am done. But why not have product placement, much like Apple has done in popular culture for the past few years.
Proof by very large bribes. QED.
Every open source project should have a quick 2 line description at the top of the webpage. It shouldn't take me 6 clicks to get a BASIC description of your project.
Before you criticize, here's what I did:
"Main announcements have been moved to the UserLinux web site at http://www.userlinux.com/ . "
and
"# See http://www.userlinux.com/ and http://www.userlinux.com/about for more information. "
Great, so I click on http://www.userlinux.com/ and end up back at http://www.userlinux.com/cgi-bin/wiki.pl . No luck there!
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I still have no idea what UserLinux is. And that was what, 7 clicks?
Compare this to Ubuntu.com. It took me 10 seconds to read the 2 line blurb at http://www.ubuntu.com/:
"Ubuntu is a complete Linux-based operating system, freely available with both community and professional support. It is developed by a large community and we invite you to participate too!
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
I remember being on the mailing list years ago. The conversations with Bruce can be summarized this way:
BRUCE: I can't tell you who I'm working for, but there's a lot of money behind this project. So, we have to be serious about this. What should we call this distro?
BOB: SuperLinux!
FRED: Enterprise-D Linux!
ELMER: CoolNIX!
BRUCE: No, no, no! You have to be serious about this! There's a lot of money behind this project. I can't tell you whose money, but we have to come up with a name for our distro that they'll like!
FRED: If they have that much money, why don't *they* pick a name?
BRUCE: I want this to be a community effort! How about 'UserLinux'?
FRED: Boring.
BOB: Generic.
ELMER: Ditto that.
BRUCE: But the community has to be serious about this! There's a lot of money behind this, and the companies that I can't name won't use Linux without a professionally named distro!
ELMER: So, this is a community effort, but the decisions will be made by fiat?
BRUCE: No, the community has to be a part of this. Now, KDE or GNOME? My clients only want GNOME. What do you think?
ELMER: That we should take this seriously because there's a lot of money behind this project from companies you can't name?
BRUCE: Exactly! So, KDE is out!
Eventually, there was a big rumble and KDE got shoved back in. I dropped the list some time after that, because it was clear that the community was meant to rubber-stamp a project that some large companies wanted to produce on the cheap.
This is all too confusing. Can't someone just cut to the chase and tell me what the best Linux distro is?
Conclusion: the Empire squashes the Federation like a bug. Accept it.