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Distro consolidation
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Is distro consolidation good or bad?
Good - distros need muscle
30%
 30%  [ 3 ]
Not an issue
50%
 50%  [ 5 ]
Bad - every loss is all our loss
20%
 20%  [ 2 ]
Total Votes : 10

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fingers99
LXF regular


Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2005 7:15 pm
Posts: 143
PostPosted: Sat Jun 18, 2005 12:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Quote:
But if your needs are more modest and typical, such as a standard intranet, one of the supported distros would be a good choice.


There is, I think, a niche where distro support comes good: my guess is that it's somewhere between the 15 employee business and the majorly huge. Then again, whatever the size, there are lots of indepedents out there ready to supply support -- including dear old IBM.

My guess is that Red Hat style support appeals to those who have not thought the process of unixification through very well and want something to match the M$ support model, but.....

Years on, at at a slight tangent, I remember a posting on CinCom's public mailing list (CinCom do Visual Works and have both paid and free -- community -- support models) from their top software developer:
"Why the hell is the third largest oil company in the US posting on the community list? Can't you afford support?"
To which the answer was, sure, and we have a support contract. We post here because we like the crak and because the responses are sometimes better.......... Wink
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skecs



Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2005 10:22 am
Posts: 76
Location: Bathurst, NSW Australia
PostPosted: Sat Jun 18, 2005 7:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
I think it isn't an issue. I have paid for various Linux distributions, downloaded the FTP version from Suse, used free as in Debian, used paid versions that have been supplied with computer magazines and downloaded different ones from mirror servers when I get bored. When some distros stop or merge or fork others appear in their place. That is is the "great bit" about Linux - you can use which ever fits the hole you have in your computing requirements.

And I'll continue to buy boxed, supported versions when I feel like it!
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Flea
LXF regular


Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2005 2:03 pm
Posts: 258
Location: Ferryhill, Co. Durham
PostPosted: Mon Jun 20, 2005 1:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Most people view forking as detrimental to a FOSS project so why would anyone be against distro consolidation? Distro's are after all just a collection of software packages (ignoring support deals). Consolidation is fine provided that the option of revolt (i.e. the GPL and forking (as a last resort)) is maintained. XFree86 and X.org is a good example.

Dave.
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