On Tue, 2005-27-09 at 06:28 +0200, Fajar Priyanto wrote: > FYI... > > http://www.smartofficenews.com.au/Computing/Platforms_And_Applications?articl > e=/Computing/Platforms%20And%20Applications/News/E5T7U6H8&page=1 > > Is this a threat to Linux? > As most others have said ; No. Internal disputes are a far greater threat. I am not aware of any significant disputes at the kernel level, but at the distribution level that is another story. Hard nosed management and developer decisions not supported by the user base may be the downfall. I have been a huge supporter of Linux, and Red Hat since around 1995. Every release of RHL was a tremendous step forward until 8.0 since then there has been one disappointment after another, and I have seen little evidence that things will get better. Even two years ago I would have never entertained the thought of using windows at home. This spring after many heated debates with RH developers about GRUB and LILO, I was still unable to get a stable SATA/IDE mixed machine to run stably. I decided to try XP Pro 2005 this spring and it has been working well. My old machine is now dual boot FC3 and XP Pro as well, and I am using the FC3 less and less. With all the serious problems installing and running FC4, I have not installed it but have been reserving hope that FC5 will be a Saving Grace. Linux distributions need to get back to their roots if they want to survive. They will hang on lingering with support from only die hard fans, but like me after enough abuse they will start loose interest too. It will take innovation and listening to what the users expect and want, to re-invigorate the user base if Linux distributions are to survive.
