Was AOL letter, now forking

[Adam Turk]

Brian, building and refining on Brad's point, is most certainly correct;
however, it should also be added that a new system is dead as soon as
there are standards which are strongly enforced and adhered to. Perhaps
they have already succeeded in their effort to trim their bottomlines,
and also to begin to drive away the pioneers from yet another frontier.
But, once having a taste of freedom, openess, and the utter insanity of
a 2/1 (distros/blades-of-grass) ratio, I don't think many will wish to
return to the intellectual oppression of standards. 8^P

adam

Thus spake the master programmer:
"Let the programmers be many and the managers be few — then all
be productive"
-- Geoffrey James, "The Tao of Programming"

>>> "Brian Densmore" <DensmoreB at ctbsonline.com> 02/05/02 10:22AM >>>
You're absolutely correct. There are many partial projects going on,
there are many inconsistencies in Linux apps.

<WARNING: long rant>
But you seem to be missing something (forgive me if I'm wrong, besides I
like to argue).
you mention the LSB (Linux standard base), but don't seem to realize,
that the big names in Linux see what you are seeing and are trying to do
something about it. There is a definite advantage to allowing
free-thinking and
brainstorming. And if you look closer, you will see that sourceforge
occasionally
has projects merge and 10 people working 10% of a problem work together
to reach
100%. Yes I see clutter and disorganization, but I also see a light at
the far end
of the tunnel. How long the tunnel is, I can't see yet. It's a very dark
tunnel and
apparent distances are sometimes deceiving.
But I choose to work with the organizers and try to make some order out
of chaos.
</rant, maybe not too long>

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bradley Miller [mailto:bradmiller at dslonramp.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2002 10:20 AM
> To: kclug at kclug.org
> Subject: Was AOL letter, now forking
>
>
> I will give you that there is a certain degree of flexibility
> in Linux, but
> as things have shown lately, there is also a degree of fault
> with being too
> flexible.  Just take a trip down the command trees and see
> what it's like
> trying to remember switches.  Consistency is hardly a
> well-known thing on a
> lot of applications.
>
> Speaking of which:
>
> Consortium releases Linux standards
>
> An industry consortium of the largest server and Linux
> sellers has released new standards to ensure that different
> versions of Linux will work similarly. The standards will
> make it easier for software companies such as Oracle to
> bring their programs to Linux, said Scott McNeil, executive
> director of the Free Standards Group. Software firms will
> know what Linux features can be expected, not only from one
> vendor's version of Linux to another, but across newer versions
> of the same company's product. Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Dell Computer,
> Compaq Computer, SuSE, Red Hat, Caldera International, Turbolinux
> and Ximian announced the standard at LinuxWorld.
> http://clickthru.online.com/Click?q=8b-SB2BQY0H_2Nm6JkMbqjU2GWT
>
> (( snip ))
>
> Like I've said before, there are so many little fractured
> projects going on
>  . . . it's a mess.  I stumble around looking for a good PHP
> script when
> there are so many partial projects that are started, do
> exactly what the
> others do, but they aren't completely tested or lack
> features.  It goes
> back to the old analogy of people working.   10 people doing
> 10 projects
> and accomplishing 10% on each project vs. 10 people doing 10%
> on 1 project.
>   Which one adds up to 100%?   The successful projects are
> those that are
> doing the 1 project thing.   That doesn't mean there can't be
> 2 or 3 other
> projects, but a quick search on SourceForge and you'll see
> that there are
> tons of projects that will be nothing but a glimmer in
> someone's eye for a
> long time, if not forever.
>
> That being said, hasn't forking already happened?   Maybe not
> at the kernel
> level, but the efforts that you have to do to install one distro vs.
> another is just mind boggling.  If you were to learn every
> flavor of distro
> nowadays . . . eeck!   Even if you just concentrate on the
> basics, it's
> still a challenge.  Microsoft grabbed it's foothold by
> streamlining how
> things worked.   Remember the good old days of using one set of
> keys/commands in Wordstar, or Wordperfect, and then another
> set for Lotus?
>  The desktop is won by the basics and consistency.  There
> will always be
> the fringe -- the Mac people, Amiga, etc.... for every era.
>
> -- Bradley Miller
>
>
> majordomo at kclug.org
>