It's rather strange, this thing called Linux. We hear of Linux powered devices proliferating the market while the users are completely unaware of what they are using. What a success. An operating system that is so simple people simply are unaware of what they are using. It's an overwhelming success story. Phones, tablets, eReaders, netbooks, DVRs, and so on are everywhere, and Linux powers many of them. On the desktop, things are a little different. Most people use Windows, and fewer but many use Macintosh, and then are those lunatic Linux people. I often wonder why Linux hasn't taken off and I personally believe that much of it is due to a lack of marketing. So, what is this post about? Distributions.
Recently, I tried Ubuntu 10.04 and I was impressed. It was very responsive, very pretty, and still had the flexibility I crave. A few simple aptgetinstalls and I had all of my development tools. A few more and I was looking at dwm with all of my beloved programs like vi, cmus, mutt, and lynx. It was an enjoyable experience. Then I noticed that when left unattended for a bit the system locked up. Oh no. Rather than fiddle with it and see what was wrong, I downloaded openSUSE.
It was very responsive, very pretty, and still had the flexibility I crave. A few simple zypperinstalls and I had all of my development tools. A few more and I was looking at dwm with all of my beloved programs. It was an enjoyable experience. Upon noting that similarity (minus the locking up), I decided to see if this similarity would continue. I installed Fedora. Same thing. I installed Debian, Mandriva, Sabayon, MEPIS, Pardus, and GoboLinux and all of the experiences were rather similar. Why do we do this? Why do we make our systems so similar? Then it clicked.
In earlier days, creating a Linux desktop distribution was rather challenging. None of them worked all too well, and none of them gained a lot of notoriety (outside of Slackware and Debian). For many of the leaders of the pack listed above they all approached that same problem, and while things are different under the surface, the end result is the same. MEPIS, Sabayon, Pardus, and GoboLinux are all newcomers. GoboLinux has other reasons for existence, but it falls into the same category. Why would they create systems similar to those already out there? Simple. They know of no other niche, but would still like their slice of the pie.
The majority of early distributions had a niche to fill. Slackware was for BSD/UNIX people, Debian was for the open source fanatics, Knoppix was for the mobile, Tinfoil Hat was for the paranoid, Red Hat for servers and enterprise environments, Mandrake for Desktops, and BuildRoot/OpenWRT for embedded systems. Where are we now? Those same distributions can fill those same roles, and for the most part all of the others are... well... superfluous. Untangle can serve as a router, and there is a little competition there. Yet, most of the 400+ systems out there are just like every other.
6 comments:
At the core of linux there is the open philosophy. There are 400+ distro because people are FREE to make them. And we bless that frededom. It allows us to use different version of linux that we consider tailored for a particular box or laptop. And we can also modify and/or make corrections to distros and re-distribute them.
They shouldn't be seen as a useless bunch of systems all similar to one another (and guess why that is. They all work with the SAME kernel), but as a constantly growing array of tools for using our hardware the way WE WANT.
For instance, since systems like Debian or Slackware are generic and not exactly user friendly, there was the need for a more mainstream, easier to use version of those excellent OSs. Hence Ubuntu and Mandriva. I use the former, but if I were a programmer or a system engineer I'd probably work with Debian instead.
We need the linux diversity to maintain our freedom and to work better with a given piece of hardware of a particular system or network.
It is no use crying over spilt milk...................................................
Wish I could say that I'm surprised about Ubuntu locking up; I've read that it's a pretty widespread issue dating back 1-2 releases. (I had it, too.)
In distro hopping, I ended up going with SimplyMEPIS in large part because it downloaded, installed, and runs properly... I ran into some kind of major problem in each category with OpenSUSE, Debian, and Fedora.
The big difference I saw was in the attitude in communities & among people in charge. A person these days should probably pick a distro primarily based on their preferences/needs in that regard.
Think you might like to recheck the MEPIS release data (Quote > MEPIS, Sabayon, Pardus, and GoboLinux are all newcomers). Sabayon, Pardus and GoboLinux all did have initial releases around 2005. MEPIS has been here since 2002 - and that actually predates Ubuntu.
The reason for MEPIS being here was that Warren Woodford (at the time) wanted to create an environment that was easy to use for a newcomer to Linux, that worked as a live-cd, and could be installed after trying the live-cd.
His OS was one of the first to do this (along with other greats like Knoppix).
Nowadays you see a lot of Linux releases following the same pattern (a lot based off Ubuntu) - but MEPIS was really one of the pioneers for ease of use.
Saverio and Xyzzy both make pertinent observations -- FREEDOM
is what Linux and Free Open Source
(Canadians say Free Libre Open Source)
are about.
I'm surprised there are not more Linux distros because
diversity is an indication of health, in this case.
很用心的blog,推推哦 ..................................................
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