Stephen O’Grady: “[W]hat if supporting Linux was easier than it is today? What if, for the sake of argument, the LSB became less of a trailing standard and more of a proactive, real time standard? What if the LSB solved, say, 97 or 98 percent of the support issues for a given application running on top of it, meaning that a vast majority of the support effort would be common to Red Hat, SuSE and then Debian? That might change the game considerably, and I’m beginning to get the sense that many different parties within the Linux distribution and application businesses are perceiving both the long term ramifications of the problem, and the potential opportunity there is if it can be solved.”
I’ve seen so many linux advocats state that the best attribute of Linux is choice. Sadly, many would cry foul over any linux standardization, as it would decrease choice in their eyes.
How does standardization decrease choice? The whole idea is that standardization increases choice. -ian
But that is jus the thing; some people believe that since standardization implies a shared characteristic, threfore choice is reduced because linux distributions must to conform to some norm. I am not defending this viewpoint, but it is out there. Take a look at OSNews, for example.
Ah yes, “standardization vs. innovation”. Bob Sutor has some great observations on this topic. -ian
I guess my next comment ties together your comments on standardization and the impending wave of consolidation in the ZDNet article for which you provided a link.
Bruce Perens feels that colaboration (even between competitors) on ‘non-differentiating’ software is a positive thing. The use of Open Source software as your ‘non-differenting’ software makes this easy/possible. If the wave of consolidation does take place, companies like Red Hat, IBM, or Novell might see the advantage to the aforementioned collaboration. A GNU/Linux desktop on which to run their individual services, middleware, or whatever fits the bill as ‘non-differentiating’ software. As such, a group of open standards may very well emerge. Other distributions with corporate aspirations (Ubuntu and Mandriva come to mind) would most likely adopt these standards. Others, like Slackware, would probably obstain from the standards (at least at first).
I think standards adoption in Linux will have to be a conscious decision once they see how they contribute to the greater good. Standards will precipitate from above, as the opportunity for profit will drive some of the stalwarts of the GNU/Linux community to be early adopters. As others see the long-term benefits the standards have provided Red Hat, Novell, etc., others will follow suit (well, that’s my theory at least).
This is and in fact the last trail to ISV support. Of course it’s just my opinion. I am no expert. But this all makes perfect sense. Users and developers support each other and have since the start.
More than anything, “good” people with good hearts give time and money to help in this growing process. Priceless!