Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on January 26, 2007 09:39 AM
All in all, these guys show great ability not only in coding but also in distro management, for they're attacking what really constitutes problems for end users.
Congrats, a double 10 for them!
On a somber note, though, it seems a shame we lost the old good ways that made Linux excellent years ago.
I'm not talking about Linux the kernel itself, which is in pretty good shape as Linus pointed out recently; nor about X, which is in the middle of a overhauling process and shows great promise -- instead, I'm talking about how we need a better dynamics in freedesktop.org.
Sorry if I'm uninformed and please, pretty please, feel free to correct any injustice I do here, but we need freedesktop to be less BSD and more Bazaar orientated. Standards should be easier to get, be easily converted to helper libs (like those which could be used to facilitate exactly what the author complains about: missing help tips, better localization etc.)
In other words, and this may be wishful thinking, distros should cooperate more. We are in the age of KDE/Gnome/XFCE cooperation and this is awesome. But we need more, much more.
The burden must be shared among distros and these must focus on service, not on products.
I'm considering Ubuntu _because_ of service. I'm a Mandriva user, their products simply rock, I'm 100% satisfied, but they are in a product business model. And they're the smart ones, 'cause they invented the club idea.
I don't mind paying a reasonable monthly fee -- but I do mind if someone comes up with an app which is exclusive to one single distro. Heck, this would bother even if that single distro was the one I use!
But how to be different and keep the clients? Well, do it through service. I need good basic support and I'm willing to pay for some extra specialized service, should the need arise (I'm a home user, but it could be something like, say, safe remote access from work). This is the kind of support proprietary corporations cannot afford to offer, but free software distributions can -- IF they agree to cut costs in software production, packaging and distribution.
Cooperation, sharing apps, methods and localization data should be easier. Why must everyone have its own package manager? You use one, someone comes up with a better one and bingo, everybody starts using it. It's one step less or something done in a friendlier fashion, whatever...
But, no, we still have that corporate competition over unimportant things. Why don't we have a choice of different options all of them made available through a menuconfig-like procedure?
Let's find a way to use others' work. That's what GPL is about! Not just sharing source, but allowing free exchange of tools...
Learn about Linux
Download Linux
Get Linux help
Very neat.
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on January 26, 2007 09:39 AMCongrats, a double 10 for them!
On a somber note, though, it seems a shame we lost the old good ways that made Linux excellent years ago.
I'm not talking about Linux the kernel itself, which is in pretty good shape as Linus pointed out recently; nor about X, which is in the middle of a overhauling process and shows great promise -- instead, I'm talking about how we need a better dynamics in freedesktop.org.
Sorry if I'm uninformed and please, pretty please, feel free to correct any injustice I do here, but we need freedesktop to be less BSD and more Bazaar orientated. Standards should be easier to get, be easily converted to helper libs (like those which could be used to facilitate exactly what the author complains about: missing help tips, better localization etc.)
In other words, and this may be wishful thinking, distros should cooperate more. We are in the age of KDE/Gnome/XFCE cooperation and this is awesome. But we need more, much more.
The burden must be shared among distros and these must focus on service, not on products.
I'm considering Ubuntu _because_ of service. I'm a Mandriva user, their products simply rock, I'm 100% satisfied, but they are in a product business model. And they're the smart ones, 'cause they invented the club idea.
I don't mind paying a reasonable monthly fee -- but I do mind if someone comes up with an app which is exclusive to one single distro. Heck, this would bother even if that single distro was the one I use!
But how to be different and keep the clients? Well, do it through service. I need good basic support and I'm willing to pay for some extra specialized service, should the need arise (I'm a home user, but it could be something like, say, safe remote access from work). This is the kind of support proprietary corporations cannot afford to offer, but free software distributions can -- IF they agree to cut costs in software production, packaging and distribution.
Cooperation, sharing apps, methods and localization data should be easier. Why must everyone have its own package manager? You use one, someone comes up with a better one and bingo, everybody starts using it. It's one step less or something done in a friendlier fashion, whatever...
But, no, we still have that corporate competition over unimportant things. Why don't we have a choice of different options all of them made available through a menuconfig-like procedure?
Let's find a way to use others' work. That's what GPL is about! Not just sharing source, but allowing free exchange of tools...
Sorry for the rant...
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