[Cialug] distro wars [continued]

[Matthew Nuzum]

On Tue, Feb 3, 2009 at 11:30 AM, David Champion <dave at dchamp.net> wrote:
> Linus seems to have a similar view to what I said earlier about the need for
> multiple distros:
>
> http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09%2F02%2F03%2F1555216&from=rss
>
> The thing I think a lot of people don't understand about F/OSS, and Linux
> specifically, is that Linux doesn't care about market share or penetration
> in the corporate desktop environment etc... because Linux isn't a company
> trying to make money.
>
> Some Linux distributors or people who make money from consulting or services
> on Linux may have different feelings about that.
>

But what is Linux? Is Linux a kernel, is it a complete end user
product? Is it the body of happy Linux users?

I think the statement above in the first paragraph only applies if
"Linux" is a core kernel surrounded by a group of hackers who are
satisfying their own itch.

The moment even one of them cares what other people think then it
ceases to be true. Linux then desires to satisfy other people's needs.
Market share is now a concern ("ok, I'll add this one new feature so
Jack can use it...").

Linux is no longer an academic experiment, it is a consumer oriented
product. IMHO.

**note I'm sending this from my personal email account. Not in any way
an official statement from my employer.

-- 
Matthew Nuzum
newz2000 on freenode, skype, linkedin, identi.ca and twitter