[plug] Controversial comparison of distros?

[sscott at iinet.net.au]

Quoting Cameron Patrick <cameron at patrick.wattle.id.au>:

> Distributions should be packaging their own software anyway

For the core, yes. Im talking more about 3rd party applications.
> If all distributions must do
> things the same way, what is the point of having more than one?  We can
> all use Red Bloody Hat and be happy with it!

They differentiate themselves already based on target audience and fitness for 
a particular purpose. Mandrake is more of a general desktop oriented 
distribution. RH are chasing the high end server market. Debian is for comp sci 
students with too much time. Slackware is for people who wear suspenders and 
have waaaay too much time.

If they all use RPM, would it really matter? If they all had a similar if not 
identical directory structure, would it really matter? RH could continue tuning 
their distro for Oracle, Mandrake could continue packaging unstable X apps 
which give everyone the shits, Debian could continue with their marvellous 
tradition of testing everything for 14 years and having ultra-perfect 
dependency trees, and slackware could continue to be ignored by anyone except 
those people who really should be running one of the BSDs.

3rd party software (including open and proprietary) would have an easier time 
packaging and distributing their software. General end users wouldnt have to 
worry about which distro they were running. As soon as you start talking about 
deb vs rpm, you scare the poor dears.

Is RPM really that bad technically? It so, it does an awefully good impression 
of 'working'. 


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