Is It Time To Split Linux Distros In Two?

snydeq writes Desktop workloads and server workloads have different needs, and it's high time Linux consider a split to more adequately address them, writes Deep End's Paul Venezia. You can take a Linux installation of nearly any distribution and turn it into a server, then back into a workstation by installing and uninstalling various packages. The OS core remains the same, and the stability and performance will be roughly the same, assuming you tune they system along the way. Those two workloads are very different, however, and as computing power continues to increase, the workloads are diverging even more. Maybe it's time Linux is split in two. I suggested this possibility last week when discussing systemd (or that FreeBSD could see higher server adoption), but it's more than systemd coming into play here. It's from the bootloader all the way up. The more we see Linux distributions trying to offer chimera-like operating systems that can be a server or a desktop at a whim, the more we tend to see the dilution of both. You can run stock Debian Jessie on your laptop or on a 64-way server. Does it not make sense to concentrate all efforts on one or the other?"

Comments

Headline that asks a question

[Imagix]

Betteridge's law of headlines. No. The article doesn't say a whole lot. Just makes the assertion that "servers" and "desktops" are different, and lightly appears to dislike systemd. Tries to make the assertion that the security concerns are different on the desktop and on the servers, but doesn't provide a strong argument for that assertion (or really any assertion it makes).

Re:Nonsense

[darkain]

Except Microsoft went this EXACT same route of merging them all into a single system starting with Windows 2000. The kernel and most packages are shared between Windows Server and Windows (workstation). The only real difference is that Microsoft charges additional licensing fees to make a few more bucks on the additional features in Server. In desktop windows, features are specifically limited (like the number of file sharing clients), but this has NOTHING to do with code, and EVERYTHING to do with licensing. There is no other real reason why services on Server wont work with the desktop version of Windows. Look at the number of business applications that install Microsoft SQL Server on the desktop, as an example.

Linux simply has the freedom to not be locked down by licensing requirements.