dep, FHS, Slackware

[Michael Hipp]

On Sunday 30 June 2002 07:06 pm, dep wrote:
> begin  Michael Hipp's  quote:
> | I'm curious. What do you find attractive about Slackware? What
> | causes it to stand out so above the others?
>
> it takes other people's system resources seriously, and but for
> bsd-style init scripts sticks to the fhs.
>
> | My (unlearned) impression is it's the one with a face only a mother
> | could love. And will never be anything more than a curiousity. So
> | in that way, it's arguably no different than Gentoo. Just older.
>
> older sometimes has its advantages -- patrick and his people have been
> around the block enough to know what they're doing. and i daresay
> there are several people here who would point out that it is not a
> curiousity -- at least not in the way gentoo is.

Thanks for your thoughts. I have doubts that advocacy of Slackware will 
accomplish anything much in the long run. But the list of distros worth 
being excited about seems to shrink by the day so perhaps we should be 
happy for anything that is somehow worthy of our respect.

[snip]
> | But the real enemy is none of those and you know who I mean. Red
> | Hat may not be perfect but it beats the alternative. We may be
> | reluctant to cheer for Red Hat. But at least they're actually *in*
> | the game. Far more than can be said for any of the others.
> | Especially now that UnitedNoDesktopsLinux is destined to remembered
> | only by the size of their smoking hole in the ground.
>
> well. that's great for red hat. now. let's suppose that microsoft
> corporation went to red hat and said "we'll pay you one billion
> dollars to endorse palladium and comply with it." that gives
> microsoft corporation a hand on the linux plug, to pull as it sees
> fit. because, as you say, with red hat effectively gone, there would
> be a handful of disparate distributions, and a wild voice out in the
> fever swamp someplace howling "gentoo" over and over. and that would
> be, pretty much, it.

True. And it is scary just how easily that nightmare could come true. 
Tomorrow even.

But it is a thought that our best counter to such a threat is to make Red 
Hat sufficiently successful that they would never consider having that 
conversation with Genghis Redmond. A looney idea perhaps but I don't know 
of a better one.

I agree wholeheartedly with your advocacy of FHS and standards. But you 
appear to be essentially alone. If anyone else is even talking about it 
much, I haven't heard.

Michael