Bruce Perens' Call to Action

[Jason Clinton]

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I'm experiencing a sort of conundrum, you see. Bruce Perens has declared Debian
the victorious package management system under which all Linux distributions
should unite. As in, now. And I agree that now is as good a time as any to unite
- -- Microsoft, it has been leaked, is planning a major multi-million dollar PR
assault on Linux's security claims. RedHat is shaking things up with its
changes. SuSE has been purchased by Novell. Mandrake is still dealing with its
bankruptcy. So why not now? Everyone seems primed. Only, under which subjects
are we going to unite? And under which subjects will we continue dissension,
discourse and discussion?

This is what I perceive as The Problem Statement:

1. Commercial Linux distributors are increasingly tying the release of their
software to service contracts. Getting the latest and greatest software and
security patches /requires/ an on-going fee. Consequently, the barriers to
casual exploration of user-friendly distros like RedHat and SuSE are increasing.

2. Commercial entities that wish to distribute their software on Linux face the
daunting task of supporting multiple distributions and multiple versions of
those distributions.

3. Support of a Linux system requires, increasingly, knowledge of the specifics
of how individual distributions differ from the Linux Standards Base and under
which versions that difference may have changed. Also, what software is
available, specifically, for that distribution. This prevents commercial
entities for blakently being able to "support Linux". Instead, they "support
RedHat Linux" or "support SuSE Linux", etc. Hence, the answer to questions asked
on our mailing list is now often: "Well, I can tell you how it works on
distribution system Foo Linux X.X but since you use Bar Linux X.X, I'm not sure
if this will help."

4. Once learned in a specific distribution, transitioning to another requires an
additional time investment. Understanding the entire range of popular Linux
distributions requires an inordinate quantity of investment. When teaching Linux
new-comers, the distribution that will best meet their needs should be taught.

5. An unfavorable quantity of time is wasted duplicating the efforts of
distributions systems that are already successful.

Perens' hypothesis is this: All of the above problems could be eliminated or
greatly reduced if we just all agreed that Debian has got it right and switched
to their package manager. Difference would still exist between distributions in
the "user space" but they would all have the common trunk of Debian. The trunk
would be called UserLinux differing only from Debian in that the default
apt-sources contain distributable proprietary software (such as video drivers
and Java), as well as free software.

Questions that remain to be answered:

1. How do we measure that a package management system is correct? Could we all
agree that Debian has it right? If its not perfect, could we agree for the good
of the community?

2. Once Debian is the trunk of everything, who's in control and do they
encourage criticism of the management of this trunk? Would it be difficult to
create a subtrunk that differs in the software included in some way?

3. As much as I love Gentoo, what is the my cost going to be to move to Debian?
Can I run the bleeding edge software I need to power my brand new hardware?

4. Would moving to this single trunk really help the above problems? Would it
open the market up to "blanket" Linux support? Could patches be pushed by
software authors rather than distributions?

And what do I conclude:

1. What's my opinion? Do I agree or disagree?

2. What coarse of action should I take based on the answer to #1?

3. What should I teach to people that are coming to me? Should I teach Gentoo or
Debian in the "Learning Linux" coarse I'm teaching this coming Spring?

So much to think about...
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