Subj : Re: Multiple Distros of Linux. Is it / will it be a problem? To : comp.os.linux From : Average_Joe Date : Mon Sep 06 2004 10:50 pm In article , Joel Lieper wrote: > I am a new linux user - mandrake 10, so my question may be naive; but it > doesn't seem to be a good sign that there are multiple versions of linux. > > Isn't there a danger that multiple distros will lead to fragmentation > of the OS, where a program written for distro A will not work in distro B; > and, instead of having one strong OS, there are many weak ones? > > Windows is bloated junk, and people who now use it could be won away to > linux; but, speaking personally, one of the reasons I delayed switching > to linux was the competing verions - I didn't know which one to get. Actually, I think that is the appeal of Linux, AND unix. A big problem (IMO) is that people tend to put linux ahead of unix in their thinking about it. Windows is like beta-max, UNIX is like VCR, With lots of different makes and models. If some of the models go out of business, so what? You've still got standard VCR recordings. (OK, maybe DVD in this day, but then my betamax analogy fails :-) ) Windows is more or less dead-end, if you use it, you must use beta-max "software" and you only get 1 "make" (Microsoft) Fewer choices are less confusing, but when they pull your model you're left with the pieces. UNIX is a bit more open, lets say you start out with a Linux or (OSX) Now, you're doing your thing, clipping along and one day, you expand (or come across a good deal on a SUN machine, etc..) So, you get another UNIX. Much of your current Linux software will compile and run on that new hardware since it's UNIX. Company grows some more, you hire some traveling sales reps, so, you get them macintosh powerbooks running OS/X. Now there is a fair chance your in-house software will work on your sales reps laptop. Hmm.. you decide you need really good stable firewall protection, so, you get FreeBSD. Here's your picture: MAC/OSX <---> FreeBSD ---+------> Linux | +------> SUN The software works good together, because the common theme is UNIX. Now, your company grows some more, you decide to put Linux on everyones desktop and you want a Linux web server/intranet. Well, the web server (Aka LAMP system) doesn't need X-Windows, gtk or any of those things. So you get a custom LAMP-centric installation for the web server (custom compiled Apache, PHP) You get a GUI-Feel-good distro on the desktops. You also put in some dumb terminals for cash registers to use. (Where a mouse is in the way) For this, you find an ancient 1586 cheap $50.00 computer and a serial multiplexor. All it does is run tty's for the dumb terminals, no need for mysql, X11, very low RAM and disc space. MAC/OSX ---> FreeBSD ---+------> Linux(LAMP) +------> Linux(Bare-terminal) +------> Linux(Desktops) +------> SUN 3 different linux "distributions". Low and behold, you branch out, large corporation, an INTEL machine won't cut it, so you get say, an IBM RS/6000 or something, you can see where this is going. Personally, I've been using debian. A lot of people love it, but I think it's the worst one (for me) so far. (So far, the only distro that I've liked is slakware, but I think I'll role my own next time, maybe try gentoo. This is where multiple distributions (or indeed NO disrtibution) comes in handy. You *can* install linux without any distribution at all if you really want to. (Though at minimum I'd strongly recommend using one as a "piggyback" to give you a place to compile stuff for the other, then rm it when done. Slakware does this piggyback really well. If you follow sane conventions, put non-critical binaries and libs in /usr, boot-time critical stuff in /bin, configs in /etc, use /usr/local for stuff you install yourself w/out a distribution, /var for variable data. Try to imagine /usr as a read-only fileysystem, (/usr/local/var can kind of screw this up..) your software has a good chance of working across distributions, and anyhow, you can always use defines and config values to change the locations of files. Jamie -- http://www.geniegate.com Custom web programming User Management Solutions Perl / PHP / Java / UNIX .