On Thursday 21 September 2006 22:35 Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> __/ [ B Gruff ] on Thursday 21 September 2006 15:05 \__
>
>> On Wednesday 20 September 2006 20:14 Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>
>>> Yes! we released 1.0!
>>
>> Just over a year ago, I noted that at least one (very) well-known U.S.
>> University had its own distro. I was impressed.
>> I hadn't realised that Much was "doing a distro"!
>> I perhaps should not be surprised though ...... Brazil you say? China?
>> South Africa?....... it's whole bluddy countries!
>
> 'Tailoring' a distribution these days is easy. You can even do this using
> a Web form, by selecting packages that you require and then downloading an
> ISO. The days of compiling kernels are long over and the advantage of
> customising and optimising a distribution to suit your needs is truly here
> to be witnessed. It's all down to marketing, selecting the right packages,
> updating them, ensuring no conflicts remain afloat, etc. That's why
> companies with many developers crunch the bugs most effectively and commit
> changes back to the pertinent projects, from which everyone gains. I love
> it!
Well, yes - but I wasn't opining on the ease/difficulty of it, old son,
rather on the fact that they *are* doing it - cities and countries!
Now take a short flight of fancy....
Suppose that you work for the Munich city council.
You have a desktop, and it's configured for you with the new Linux distro,
OpenOffice, Firefox, etc. Significantly, and by definition, it has
everything that you need for your work, and unless you are a geek (which
*you* are, of course, so read "one" rather than "you"!), it contains
everything that you ever use on a computer.
You have, or buy, a computer for home use.
You ask your boss about OS and S/W.
At one time, he'd have told you in no uncertain terms that you must *not*
copy anything! What now? "Pick up a CD from my secretary - and make as
many copies as you wish"?
Hmmm... so now you have at home what you have at work.
... but young Ernst learns to use that while he's at pre-school age....
... so now what does young Ernst expect/need at school....?
... ah, right, and when young Ernst leaves school.........
Suddenly, it's self-perpetuating, isn't it?
Suddenly, everybody knows somebody who knows Linux and OSS, and can help
them....
... all of which is a very familiar story, but it's not being done by vendor
lockin, "pirating" S/W, or dependancy on a foreign corporation....
... and in all this, perhaps we should bear in mind that as the user base
increases, the developer base increases.....
It's going to fly, Roy:-)
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