United Linux: why MandrakeSoft will not join

[Lee]

Disagree. Been using Mandrake 8.0 ever since the Great Caldera Insult of
99. Tried 8.1 but it suffers from the same disease as most other new
releases in that the floppy and cdrom are not accessible from the
desktop or  from the command line either. But, I have been using
Mandrake long enough to know that it is not a Red Hat Clone. I've
downloaded too many Red Hat RPMs and tarballs that wouldn't install due
to configuration differences to believe that.

A second point is why would Mandrake want to join SuSE and the three
bears? Like Red Hat they're on the verge of making a profit. With their
two year contract with the French government to de-MicroSoft French
Government computers they might just succeed in pushing M$ out of
France. By joining Caldera's latest harebrained scheme they would just
make it easier to be invaded by other Linux distributors on  their own
French turf. 

Then there is this great bug-a-boo of splintering. So what? That's what
Linux is all about. The only unsplintered OS around is M$. I don't hear
too many suggestions that that is the ideal that Linux should strive
for. The truth is that Linux is by it's very nature supposed to be
splintered. It is supposed to be driven by thousands of developers both
professional and non professional who design and redesign it. Linux has
not lost market share because of any splinter effect. No matter how hard
that makes the job of system administrator the business consumer doesn't
care. To most of them the system administer is the little man you don't
see. If he has to tie the system together with bailing wire and rags so
what as long as it works. Linux has done so poorly because they have
never really tried to market their product. When was the last time you
saw a commercial or newspaper ad for Mandrake, Red Hat, SuSe, Caldera or
anyone other than an IBM ad. Right now Apple is running ads all over the
tv networks pushing their computers (so they claim) over windows powered
pcs. That's called marketing.

Then there is the problem if this United Harebrain concept succeeds? We
end up with one desktop and all the current Linux distributors become
little more than venders of Linux optional software with the only
difference being the games provided, office, whether you get Sand or
cdroast a cd player or a cd player and an MP3 player qview or bitmap.
Before very long you're going to end up with one Linux desktop. As for
system; yes that would solve a lot of hard work. But come on, you guys
are paid to do the work. It's the reason for your existence. Simplify it
too much and it's replace time with a cousin Orville who flunked out of
second grade, but does have enough smarts to turn the server on in the
morning and off in the evening and has the telephone number of repair
shop when it crashes. Then there is the biggy. You can hand build a
Linux server system by taking pieces from the net and other distros to
meet the client's needs. Try that with M$ or UnitedLinux whose latest
release has a hugh hole in it that wouldn't be fix until the next
release in 18 months.

Lee





Matthew Carpenter wrote:
> 
> Does anyone have a shovel?  These guys could use some help getting out...
> getting their head out of the sand is going to be the most difficult part
> of the rescue.  What threshold would they like crossed before admitting
> that there is some "splintering"?  Ok.  So the "splintering" doesn't look
> the same as it did for Unix, but the fact that you have to recompile for
> each distro does spell SOME disaster... Oh, I forgot.  They don't DO their
> own work, but build off of Red Hat.  Ooops.  I guess that's ONE way to
> keep compatible.  Perhaps the other four should jump on the RH-base
> bandwagon and give up this foolish shenanagan of making their own
> distro-base.  Then again, maybe we don't WANT Linux to be in one basket...
> 
> On Tue, 2 Jul 2002 16:02:40 -0400 (EDT)
> "Net Llama!" <netllama at linux-sxs.org> wrote:
> 
> > http://www.mandrakesoft.com/company/investors/bsa/faq2
> >
> > --
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > Lonni J Friedman                              netllama at linux-sxs.org
> > Linux Step-by-step & TyGeMo                http://netllama.ipfox.com
> >
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