Re: [ossig] Enterprise Linux: UserLinux, Debian

[Christopher DeMarco <cdemarco@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Aug 19, 2004 at 05:02:54AM -0700, Mukhsein Johari wrote:

> I didn't mean for this to get into a FC/Debian
> yum/apt-get religious debate - but of course, I
> shoulda known, huh? :-P

Yup.  But then, you're probably  one of those brain-damaged vi  users,
right?


> What  I'm  getting  at is, is  the   "way of  debian"  somehow extra
> conducive to distro specialization in some way?  Is it really *that*
> flexible?  What gives it this  quality that  other 'base' distros do
> not have?

My guess is that the  *perception* of Debian  as the "hacker's distro"
means that those hackers who  are motivated and  skilled enough to put
together  clever projects like  Knoppix  are also  those who are drawn
very   strongly  to the  "Debian  Way"  - but there's   a hidden third
category you're not mentioning.

First, why Debian and not RH?  I  count four Major Distros: Slackware,
Red Hat, Debian and SuSE.  Historically, their niches have been:

Slackware - hardcore DIY minimalist old-skool Linux
Red Hat - for corporate and new users
SuSE - for corporate and newbie Germans (Roter Hut!?)
Debian - more mainstream than Slackware, less mainstream than Red Hat

The Debian userbase is  traditionally scornful of   the RH GUI way  of
doing things but at the same time very supportive of the custom Debian
tools  - it  is a  very large  and very   close  user community.   The
archetypical Debian user is one who's gotten pissed off by some aspect
of the Red Hat GUI/EZ-CONF philosophy, and who wants to move to a more
hands-on distro.   A  small  number will  convert to  Slackware,   but
Slackware  users  by-and-large   tend  to  skip  the  Red   Hat  phase
altogether.  

The  type of  Linux user   who's  likely  to  put together   something
radically new (c.f  Knoppix) is   more likely  to  be  the type  who's
attracted to Debian rather than the type who's attracted to RH.  RH is
mainstream,  Debian  is   "subculture".    Also,  until  recently,  RH
development  was much more closed than   Debian's.  The Fedora project
might go a long way towards changing the attitudes  of the user groups
- but OTOH perhaps RHEL will further polarize things.

But the "hidden third group" of projects is probably the largest.  You
have: (1) those based on  RH, (2) those based on  Debian and (3) those
not based on  ANY distro.  Those who   are not religious or  who don't
like Debian  for some reason  will go with  a  hand-rolled Linux (c.f.
Tom's Boot/Root Disk).  The reason  you see more Debian-based projects
is is  that the group  of hackers who  create  new projects  but DON'T
hand-roll  their   projects will probably  fall into   the Debian camp
rather than the Red Hat.


-- 
% You are in a maze of twisty passages, all alike.
Christopher DeMarco <cdemarco@fastmail.fm>          
PGP public key ID 0x2E76CF5C @ pgp.mit.edu
+6013 389 5658

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