Gentoo Linux

Gregory J. Neumann gjn at certainlywood.com
Wed Apr 3 10:42:11 EST 2002


My $.02 on this is simply that it was the proprietary systems guys that splintered 
Unix.  The wealth of "distros" available that make installations for a wide range 
of needs and proficiencies of users possible.  Most of the guys behind the distros 
are active coders.  The guy that heads Gentoo Linux has written some very useful 
online tutorials for the IBM Developerworks project, as well as worked on security 
for Linux.  The iso's for Gentoo Linux are there on the website for the grabbing.  
If you buy the CD's for most distro's the cost is mostly for the media and printed 
goodies.  Usually very much worth it.  Look at what you got for your money w/ Win98 
CD's!

Open, non-proprietary standards are very good!   If you've ever read really OLD 
books, before English began to get standardized(?) spelling and punctuation rules, 
you know what I mean!  Now, what would have happened if Shakespeare had patented 
his spellings? (Microsoft English?) 8-O
  
Do you have any more on the FHS you mention?  I've never heard of it ... or at 
least not by that acronym.

No flaming intended here, I thought your .02 about the need for standards is very 
well taken.  I'm looking forward to some more discussion on this topic.

Best regards,
-Greg

> OK,
> Well I feel that I have to add my $.02 worth here..
> One of the problems I see facing Linux has already been done.  Unix 
> splintered off into separate groups that did "their own thing" back 
> when.  I see this already happening to Linux.  I am ALL for open source, it 
> just bothers me that all these "wannabe's" will make their own distro which 
> is just a collection of work that they didn't do or contribute to, yet they 
> wanna make money from it.
> Yes, it is perfectly acceptable  by the terms of GNU copyleft, but that 
> still doesn't make it right.  If I did nothing but collected what is needed 
> to build a 'basic' Linux box, with no appreciable additions, I would feel 
> like a heel by charging for that, regardless that 'my time is money'.
> 
> I think the FHS  NEEDS to become a reality, and that Every linux distro 
> follow it, standardization is not necessarily a bad thing.  It will only 
> make us stronger in the long run if it doesn't matter that 'so & so' 
> learned on Debian or RH or Slackware, as long as the FHS is in place, then 
> the files that matter will be where they should be.
> 
> That is one of the strengths of proprietary systems, things are where you 
> expect them to be, each time/every time.
> 
> Just my $.02
> 
> Chaz®
> 
> At 07:48 PM 4/2/02 -0500, you wrote:
> >Thought someone might be interested in this.  Has anyone checked out Gentoo?
> >
> >http://www.gentoo.org/index-about.html
> >
> 




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