Jump to content

United We Stand...the Division in the Linux World


ral
 Share

Recommended Posts

I have a certain degree of mixed reactions to this article. The reason that linux is eroding the ms empire is because of the choices offered in the market place. Competition is good for business and consumers! I'm afraid that "standards" might become an excuse for "no choice" in os's. The problem with windows is not that it doesn't work (it does sometimes) but that Gates is attempting a monopolistic control of the tech industry.

Sears was the number one retailer for many years. No bigger and better behmouth knocked them out; it was the continual preassure of many retailers targeting their markets. And of course Sears not thinking that all those fleas could affect them.

Linux needs to not become a substitute ms, but to become a new model in technology, which it already is. My 2.346759 cents worth!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The diverse horizon of the Linux universe is the reason it is so strong today.

 

I say let there be a billion distros. If it wasn't for the slackware's, etc we wouldn't have had redhat and if it wasn't for redhat we wouldn't have mandrake.

 

Linux breeds on diversity. It has the strongest "gene pool" of any Operating system. Standardisation may make your life easier, but will turn Linux into a cheap mimic of windoze.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interoperability standards are a good thing. The linux kernel is based on the POSIX standard which is why a lot of UNiX software can be easily ported to it. You could concevably write an operating system that looks and behaves exactly like linux (from the user's standpoint) yet have an API that is so foreign that it would be very difficult to port even UNIX programs to it.

 

On the other hand, you could also write an operating system that behaves like windows (again, from the user's standpoint) but uses APIs that comply with the POSIX standard and could use UNIX programs.

 

It all depends on what aspects you standardize.

 

It would be nice to standardize the directory structure and base libraries that linux distros contain so that software companies wouldn't always have to hit multiple moving targets when porting their software to linux.

 

Glitz.

 

PS. The only aspect of the GUI that needs to be standardized is cut and paste. As long as information can be passed from one program to another that's fine. The look and feel of the window manager is irrelevant to the actual software.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...