On Wed, 2005-04-06 at 15:30 +0100, Mike Hearn wrote:
> Now, I want to see Linux - and Fedora Core - be operating systems. I want
> to see lots of people building their software upon Free APIs, and I think
> we need to compete with Windows and MacOSX to get there. So I'd lean
> towards the second view.
Mike, I definitely can agree with the portion of your argument shown
here:: One of Window's selling points is its compatibility to old
versions. It is, in fact, the center of the Microsoft business model.
If Longhorn were to totally break compatibility with previous versions
of Windows, how many shops do you think would decide it made just as
much sense to break compatibility and move to a better OS than to stay
with an incompatible "Windows"?
OTOH, Linux distributions aren't being used because they're just like
Windows. They're being used because they have other unique strengths.
One of which is the willingness to do painful things like get rid of old
cruft in order to make way for different, incompatible advances. I
think for Fedora's goals (moving faster than RHL was, testing new
technologies for eventual inclusion in RHEL, not being a dumping ground
for old, unmaintained code), sacrificing the ability to get rid of cruft
(in Core) for compatibility to old binaries/APIs is a poor decision.
Someone pointed out that many of the Loki Games no longer run on Fedora
because of kernel changes. No amount of keeping old libraries is going
to overcome that. If someone wants to fork a version of Fedora that
gets updated applications but keeps a stable base down to the kernel
layer and vet all potential changes there for things that will break
user apps they might be able to garner market share from people wanting
to run third party binary apps forever. OTOH, they may find that corner
of the market (game and app-rich, API/ABI stable, binary and
proprietary-license friendly OSs) is already filled with more mature
competitors.
-Toshio
--
toshio \"Life is like a china candy dish: filled with brightly promising
@tiki- \ sweets, quickly emptied. lasts a bit. dropped. it breaks."
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GA->ME 1999
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