[Tfug] "Linux is a forking mess."

[Rich]

On Jul 19, 2007, at 9:36 pm, Ashley Pritchard wrote:

> I feel the article is very correct. There are too many  
> distributions to be able to compete for the PC with microsoft.
> Linux will never be able to win over the desktop without a  
> standardized distribution.
Well I disagree with that. The *more* distributions there are, the  
more chance each one has of being adopted.

For example, in the animation industry, RHEL/CentOS is used alongside  
Macs. Disney prefers Photoshop on Wine rather than risk it bringing  
down an entire machine. That kind of distribution isn't appropriate  
to a games user, even though they're doing very similar things (fast  
3D, large media files, etc.)

A standard "CEO" build of Linux would have to have calendaring that  
an assistant could manage; and user-empowered delegation of duties  
(rather than depending on a sysadmin to grant rights etc). This would  
depend on a variety of server software; but take away the server, and  
you've got something approaching the "Grandma Millie" distro  
discussed here a while back.

Your big CEO goes out on the road, (s)he needs a slaptop that can  
connect to any wireless AP without any tinkering. Same as the writers  
and goths down at Raging Sage. Other coffee addicts are going to need  
an AMP environment to show off work to their clients.

Then there's the professional musician, amateur musician, computing  
hobbyist, the electronics tinkerer, the software developer, and a  
million other dedicated uses for a computer.

So: a standardized distribution ... for *what* exactly? Doing bugger  
all, like Windows? Or tinkering like Mac OS?

Any OS distribution has to be a good platform for the software; but  
you get conflicts. This is why turnkey products are available for  
things like Maya, Soft|XSI and Avid|DS -- it's not just the hardware  
they're selling. It would be ludicrous for a Hollywood editing studio  
to expect Avid|DS to run on a PC from Circuit City, yet *that* runs  
your standardized distribution of Windows...

Hm. Taking stock of that, it would be nice to see distros that  
feature a particular set of apps oriented round a particular task or  
role:

  - video editing
  - music recording/editing
  - 2D/3D animation
  - DTP/2D illustration

> Diolch yn fawr, Ashley
Niets te danken, R.