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<TITLE>RE: [NTLUG:Discuss] attn: newbies! </TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>True, they all have the goal (sell boxes), but they also have</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>some 'hook' that they think will allow them to win. </FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>For example, although Mandrake is derived from Redhat and is </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>(therefore) very similar; it tries to differentiate itself by </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>optimizing its libraries for Pentium class PC's (no 486, etc) </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>and that as a company priority, they spend a lot more time </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>optimizing the KDE desktop than they do the Gnome desktop.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>When you start with: "which distribution is best?" you are</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>guaranteed to have controversy. I am naive enough to think</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>that you can point out the different marketing targets or</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>philosophies of the different distributions without too much</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>heartburn.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Regards,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Steven Gorwood</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> </FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>-----Original Message-----</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>From: Christopher Browne [<A HREF="mailto:cbbrowne@localhost.brownes.org">mailto:cbbrowne@localhost.brownes.org</A>]</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Sent: Monday, April 09, 2001 2:15 PM</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>To: discuss@ntlug.org</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Subject: Re: [NTLUG:Discuss] attn: newbies! </FONT>
</P>
<BR>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>On Mon, 09 Apr 2001 10:25:20 CDT, the world broke into rejoicing as</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>"Gorwood, Steve" <sgorwood@ti.com> said:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Perhaps a page comparing the different major distributions: i.e.,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> why would a user choose slackware over mandrake, mandrake over</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> redhat, etc.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>> I don't suggest that you rate the distributions in terms of quality</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> (which changes dramatically from release to release), but each</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> distribution brings a different philosophy, approach or goal to the</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> task and has a different target end user.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>It may be easy enough to characterize Slackware, but I'm not sure how</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>you're going to be able to distinguish between Red Hat, SuSE,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Mandrake, TurboLinux, and Caldera without being _forced_ to opinionate</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>in a way that is going to lead to acrimony.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>After all, they _all_ have pretty common sets of goals, specifically:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> To sell boxes to users.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>In the interests of maximizing the numbers of boxes sold, all of these</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>are:</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>- Plucking source code from much the same rivers of development</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> efforts,</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>- Sponsoring development of their favorite bits of hardware drives;</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>- Using the _same_ package management tool, RPM;</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>- Building progressively prettier sets of installation and system</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> management tools.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Three of those factors lead to convergence of code bases; the last</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>item on the list leads to diverging sets of custom system management</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>tools, which strikes me as mostly a Bad Thing.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Over the last couple years, their _policies_ have been to try to IPO,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>and get tremendously wealthy. It's not going to be easy to agree on</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>_technical_ or _functional_ differences.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>--</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>(reverse (concatenate 'string "gro.gultn@" "enworbbc"))</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/resume.html" TARGET="_blank">http://www.ntlug.org/~cbbrowne/resume.html</A></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>"Robot: Your plastic pal who's fun to be with."</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>-- Marketing Division, Sirius Cybernetics Corp.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>_______________________________________________</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="http://www.ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss" TARGET="_blank">http://www.ntlug.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss</A></FONT>
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