On Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 6:09 PM, Tim <[email protected]> wrote:
> > I'm just going to say it: You can't have your cake and eat it too. > You want an up-to-date distro that's been fully tested. Well, there > just aren't enough resources around to do this in the open source > community. It sounds funny to say, given the proliferation of Linux distros, but I think there is room for even more with a focus on lessening the having-the-cake/eating-the-cake trade-off ... > cycle. Linux distros, on the other hand, package everything together > and even maintain the majority of the drivers for supported hardware. > It's a complex task. ... by reducing this complexity where possible. That means, either: 1) more distros that don't offer every piece of software under the sun, all packaged up with a wing-and-a-prayer that it might, sorta mostly work. or 2) more distros that provide a stable, standards-compliant base that users can rely on while they add/install/tweak software they install from source or some standardized, simplified packaging. Think somewhere between Slackware and Arch Linux. > Linux distributions are all about collecting thousands of packages > into a somewhat coherent installation. Many of them are not going to > be well tested *and* be updated frequently because some are only > seriously used by ~5 people. Exactly. Doesn't that beg the question, do people really want smaller, more focused distros, with well-tested and relatively up-to-date software? Or do they want kitchen-sink distros with practically everything packaged, even if that means that stablility is only possible by using older software or currency is only possible by putting up with wonky apps and frequent updates? In the absence of Microsoft-like capitalization to conduct extensive focus groups, it seems to me just judging from the popularity of what's out there now, they mostly want the latter. But maybe that's just because standardization efforts have only gotten so far, and it seems will only ever get so far, given the resistance they face. Michael M. -- "Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." --Thomas Jefferson _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
