I was one of the people qouted in the article. The qoutes were not exactly in line, but what can you do.
Anyway, I have been using GNU/Linux since.99pl10 so I think I have bit of an understanding of the Linux community.
I agree with you that for a single user making changes on your system like adding newer glibc libraries is not a huge burden. I don't like having to do things like that, but it is doable.
As an admin, I most certainly would not want to have to keep track of the 3-4 distros to make sure things will work. This would only add up on the 4 different commericial UNIXs I already maintain. I know many companies that use GNU/Linux and have developed policies in which they only support one distro (usually redhat). As a user I know the importance of choosing your favorite distro. Thus, I wouldn't want to take this away from the people I support. The LSB, if it works, should take care of this, but I definitely think these are issues the community needs face at some point. Especially with the rate of commercial vendors getting involved. On a side note, this is where the FreeBSD developement process is superior.
I was the one qouted in this article. Though, I must first say that the qoutes are not exactly in line with what I said. As I see it I have two viewpoints on this issue:
1. As an administrator I am very concerned about the success of the LSB and the wide gaps between different distros. You have clearly shown one example of this.
2. As a user I want to be able to use any distribution and be able to feel confident that any commericial app will work on the box. To be honest I mostly use free software so this isn't a huge problem. Though with Loki's emergence on the scene I can definitely see a lot more games coming out for GNU/Linux in the near future. Clearly, I can't just play free games. If the commercial vendors decide to only support one distro then, yes I have a very big problem with this. I want to be able to use any distro. Sure, I could probably configure the distro to work/look like the supported one, but I should not have to go to great lengths to be able to play a game. This is where I think the LSB can come through for all of us. The commercial vendors should not be allowed to dictate what the most popular distro is. Otherwise we will have another Windows product on our hands with absolutely no sense of freedom.
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I was one of the people qouted in the article. The qoutes were not exactly in line, but what can you do.
.99pl10 so I think I have bit of an understanding of the Linux community.
Anyway, I have been using GNU/Linux since
I agree with you that for a single user making changes on your system like adding newer glibc libraries is not a huge burden. I don't like having to do things like that, but it is doable.
As an admin, I most certainly would not want to have to keep track of the 3-4 distros to make sure things will work. This would only add up on the 4 different commericial UNIXs I already maintain.
I know many companies that use GNU/Linux and have developed policies in which they only support one distro (usually redhat). As a user I know the importance of choosing your favorite distro. Thus, I wouldn't want to take this away from the people I support. The LSB, if it works, should take care of this, but I definitely think these are issues the community needs face at some point. Especially with the rate of commercial vendors getting involved. On a side note, this is where the FreeBSD developement process is superior.
I was the one qouted in this article. Though, I must first say that the qoutes are not exactly in line with what I said. As I see it I have two viewpoints on this issue:
1. As an administrator I am very concerned about the success of the LSB and the wide gaps between different distros. You have clearly shown one example of this.
2. As a user I want to be able to use any distribution and be able to feel confident that any commericial app will work on the box. To be honest I mostly use free software so this isn't a huge problem. Though with Loki's emergence on the scene I can definitely see a lot more games coming out for GNU/Linux in the near future. Clearly, I can't just play free games. If the commercial vendors decide to only support one distro then, yes I have a very big problem with this. I want to be able to use any distro. Sure, I could probably configure the distro to work/look like the supported one, but I should not have to go to great lengths to be able to play a game. This is where I think the LSB can come through for all of us. The commercial vendors should not be allowed to dictate what the most popular distro is. Otherwise we will have another Windows product on our hands with absolutely no sense of freedom.