cotfessi
09-04-2003, 01:06 PM
I’ve been in and out of the Linux world for about 5 years. I’ve always tried to maintain at least one box at home running some flavor of Linux. I’ve tried Slackware, Redhat, Suse, Debian, and most recently Gentoo. Each has some advantages and disadvantages. I’ve become somewhat partial to Debian within the last year or so. I think that the apt-get tool works well for me. (yes, I know there are other similar tools in other ditros) I liked the portage system within Gentoo as well, but I found myself spending too much time compiling than actually using my system.
That being said, I have a few questions to the community in general. I’m sitting here at work and we’re running Redhat on several of our servers. We needed to recompile the kernel to get one of our IBM apps to work – no one wanted to do this because (a) they didn’t know how and (b) it would invalidate tech support. I think about all of the times I have compiled my kernel and all of the tweaks that I’ve applied to my boxes over the years and I’m wondering if Linux is overshooting the goal. I don’t want to inspire some sort of holy war or create a back and forth about the Linux desktop is just as good if not better – I think that it is. For your average geek who has a few hours some weekend, you can make a really slick Linux box that would beat a Window machine any day. I’m more looking at it from a standpoint of the corporate enterprise and not the home user. Linux doesn’t have to be everything to everybody, hell; I don’t care if my grandma can’t install it! If you’re a serious computer user and you want more control that windows gives you than by all means, install Linux. But what about the corporate side of things? A company doesn’t want to work with a distro that gives you the power to be super configured; a company wants a solid OS that is secure and stable. Redhat seems to be the clear favorite within this market because of the corporate structure that Redhat has wrapped itself in…and there in lies my question. How can Linux possibly survive as it enters the corporate world on a larger scale? Distros like Debian are almost too concerned with their methodology… it just seems to idealistic to make it in the corporate world. Now I’d like to think I understand the spirit of the GNU, GPL, etc. but I’m wondering about the future of Linux as it makes it’s way farther and farther into the corporate world. Is all of the work being done on distros that won’t ever make it to the enterprise in vain? Maybe it’s someone’s hobby, and maybe I’m asking the wrong question, but it seems pointless sometimes. I guess I’ve always taken the approach that if I’m going to spend extra time at home screwing around with Linux , I’d like to do so in a manner that it helps with my dealing with Linux at work. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
That being said, I have a few questions to the community in general. I’m sitting here at work and we’re running Redhat on several of our servers. We needed to recompile the kernel to get one of our IBM apps to work – no one wanted to do this because (a) they didn’t know how and (b) it would invalidate tech support. I think about all of the times I have compiled my kernel and all of the tweaks that I’ve applied to my boxes over the years and I’m wondering if Linux is overshooting the goal. I don’t want to inspire some sort of holy war or create a back and forth about the Linux desktop is just as good if not better – I think that it is. For your average geek who has a few hours some weekend, you can make a really slick Linux box that would beat a Window machine any day. I’m more looking at it from a standpoint of the corporate enterprise and not the home user. Linux doesn’t have to be everything to everybody, hell; I don’t care if my grandma can’t install it! If you’re a serious computer user and you want more control that windows gives you than by all means, install Linux. But what about the corporate side of things? A company doesn’t want to work with a distro that gives you the power to be super configured; a company wants a solid OS that is secure and stable. Redhat seems to be the clear favorite within this market because of the corporate structure that Redhat has wrapped itself in…and there in lies my question. How can Linux possibly survive as it enters the corporate world on a larger scale? Distros like Debian are almost too concerned with their methodology… it just seems to idealistic to make it in the corporate world. Now I’d like to think I understand the spirit of the GNU, GPL, etc. but I’m wondering about the future of Linux as it makes it’s way farther and farther into the corporate world. Is all of the work being done on distros that won’t ever make it to the enterprise in vain? Maybe it’s someone’s hobby, and maybe I’m asking the wrong question, but it seems pointless sometimes. I guess I’ve always taken the approach that if I’m going to spend extra time at home screwing around with Linux , I’d like to do so in a manner that it helps with my dealing with Linux at work. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?