Introducing a new Linux distribution: Ubuntu

[Alexandru Ungur]

"Ubuntu" is an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others". Ubuntu also means "I am what I am because of who we all are". The Ubuntu Linux distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.

Looks like a very nice motivation, very well melt into the spirit of Linux, Open Source and in the and... altruism. Ubuntu maintainers seem to understand well this spirit and I can only wish all the best to them and this distro.
Can't wait to give a test ride myself as soon as possible.

Ubuntu.

[temi]

Alex,
Excellent philosophy behind this new project but do you think we need another Linux distribution ? There are quite a few out at the moment. By the way do you know how many Linux distribution exist? I can think of about 4:
RedHat
Mandrake

now I am struggling, I know you can probably list 10 from the top of your head

[Alexandru Ungur]

Alex,
Excellent philosophy behind this new project but do you think we need another Linux distribution ? There are quite a few out at the moment. By the way do you know how many Linux distribution exist? I can think of about 4:
RedHat
Mandrake

now I am struggling, I know you can probably list 10 from the top of your head

Indeed
RedHat, SuSE, Slackware, Debian, Mandrake, Gentoo, Knoppix, Fedora, Smoothwall, LFS, Lindows, Lycoris...

The number of Linux distribution rises to a few hundreds, but the number of major Linux distribution is around 7-10.

If we need another distribution? Who cares? Linux distros are not created on a demand basis, on market share expectations. Linux is Openess, Linux is Freedom, Linux is... Fun! Those people had fun making it, I'm sure there's gonna be quite a bunch of other people having fun while using it.
I'm gonna be one of them

[temi]

Ummm,
Its also sounds like re-inventing the wheel to me

[Alexandru Ungur]

Ummm,
Its also sounds like re-inventing the wheel to me

Do you consider that also when Mercedes is getting out a new model, or when there is launched a new brand of car? It's not about reinventing the wheel, it just about another particular usage of it. And there's always place on UNIX community for another Linux, because that's why they calle it "Open". The good thing about having so many Linux distributions is like the good thing of having so many brands of cars: you can choose the one that best matches you, your personality, your budget, whatever. Would you feel better if you only had to choose between 2-3 types of cars all looking the same and all beeing good at getting frozen in the middle of the road requiring you to Ctrl+Alt+Del all the time?

[temi]

Not quite convinced about this argument. Fragmentation of Linux is a lot of people having fun etc but in the long run I'm not sure it help the Linux cause.

[Alexandru Ungur]

Not quite convinced about this argument. Fragmentation of Linux is a lot of people having fun etc but in the long run I'm not sure it help the Linux cause.

There is *no* fragmentation of Linux. Linux is the name of the core OS component: the kernel. The kernel is the same across *all* Linux distributions, what it differs is the flavour... that's all. I use Slackware but many times I used packages from RedHat or Mandrake or compiled them from source, etc. and used them without problems... that's because even there are many flavours of Linux, there is no real fragmentation, they're all one big happy family.
And I exagerated a little the fun part, I mean I bet those who are paying thousand of dollars on enterprise level distros are not having much fun still they are using Linux...
You see, what really binds all the Linux distributions are not the distribution itself... but the people. It's the communities behind the distros that power up the entire process with their enthusiasm, their energy, their dedication.... and why do they do that? Because Linux in turn is for the people, for giving them the best technical solution to their needs that only develops having performance in mind, technical and not financial performance. Most of the development in Linux world took place because some people wanted to do things better.
This spirit of Open Source that I am talking about has best been seen a few weeks ago when a guy offered to buy out the Linux kernel offering as much as 50,000$ per copy of kernel, reaching a total amounth of several bilion dollars... do you know what the answer from the community was?
I'll let you guess.... :wink: