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Saturday, February 05, 2005

The Bifurcation of Linux
Chris Maresca, a senior partner at Olliance Group, an open-source consulting company that is working with the Free Standards Group (FSG), told attendees at the OSDL (Open Source Development Labs) Enterprise Linux Summit that it would be better to break the Linux standard into two – one for desktops and the other for servers.

Oh no!! Linux Home and Linux Professional! Maresca said that despite pressure from Asia for a desktop standard, sorting out the server side takes priority.

Bifurcation: A point at which a system splits into two alternative behaviours, either being possible, the one actually followed often being indeterminate (unpredictable).
# Permalink Posted at 8:20 AM 3 comments Email this Link

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Bill--

As I am sure you are aware, Linux has many distros, and the Home vs. Pro designator is already used. SUSE 9.2 Home, for instance, contains a subset of the applications present in the Pro edition (which, in turn is a subset of the enterprise offering- OK, so that's a minor simplification).

Where this differs from your favorite MS products is that the OS comes complete with productivity apps- $80 for SUSE 9.2 Pro provides everything a SOHO will typically need. Even if there are, absolutely, positively MS apps you have to run, Wine, dual booting or running on a VM are all valid (and relatively straightforward to implement) solutions.

My take is that OSDL is aiming the split more towards the enterprise side of the market with the LSB- this is by no means a repeat of the Unix distro split, as an application written for one Linux distro can (sometimes with a little tweaking, sometimes out of the box) work with another- THANKS IN NO SMALL PART TO THE LSB.

I have noticed in both your print articles and posts an almost sneering attitude towards linux. If this comes from some previous, unsuccessful, attempt to get things done I would advise you to take a look at SUSE (or Ubuntu, or Fedora of Knoppix) again- you may be surprised at the ease of installation, familiarity of interface (particulalry with KDE or GNOME) and just the number of applications that come standard with each distro.

# posted by Anonymous 6:10 AM

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I spent a year writing a column for ZDNet called "Linux at Large." One of the few remaining columns (thanks to CNET's campaign to tidy up the Internet) can be found at:
http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6261-1059928.html

As for sneering at Linux, nah. At a lot of Linux users who are mindless psychotics, oh yeah.

# posted by Bill 7:36 AM

I have found, for the most part, that Linux users are typically more reasoned, more helpful (albeit somewhat socially challenged (just my take)). I have yet to hear of a WUG, but I have been a member of LUGS from Florida to Texas and made some good friends as well as received a lot of help (which has allowed me to defenestrate my own laptop, and learn in the process).

The vociferous minority, the flamers, the True Believers (TM) can be found in almost any venue (Macheads are a good example)- they are invariably NOT the people who actually do the work (again, in my own opinion).

Don't let the minority spoil your enjoyment and exploration- as a long time Hard Edge reader one of the things I liked about A&B is the joy of discovery that you seemed to share- something that got me into computing oh those many (well, not quite as many as Bill, but you get the idea) years ago. One thing I like about Linux is that the ability to explore, to experiment, to discover and learn is an intrinsic part of the ethos (can an OS have an ethos? Ask a Machead...)

Just my 2 cents- take it for what it's worth

# posted by Anonymous 8:52 AM

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