Linux is not about choice [was Re: Fedora too cutting edge?]

[Les Mikesell]

Matej Cepl wrote:
> On 2008-01-10, 00:08 GMT, Les Mikesell wrote:
>> Can we have OpenSolaris (with zfs) too?  I was going to point 
>> out that Linux wasn't about choice but about providing a free 
>> and compatible alternative to Unix.  But this would complete 
>> the circle...
> 
> I would put my hope into http://oss.oracle.com/projects/btrfs/ 
> rather than into port of ZFS on Linux. Yes, it is still alpha, 
> and yes Oracle could screw it up somehow (I don't exepct it, 
> though), but creating our own implementation of the stuff seems 
> like The Linux Way (rather than whinning that Sun didn't give us 
> the candy).

Zfs isn't the only interesting thing about opensolaris and Sun does give 
you the candy if you take the whole package. It is only the Linux terms 
that keep you from adding the parts. Solaris has an entirely different 
attitude about backwards compatibility which makes the mention slightly 
on topic for this conversation. I can't, for example, imagine them ever 
changing a device name arbitrarily and breaking a previously working 
configuration while Linux has no such respect for its users' previous 
work.  Fedora may not be the place for it, but I would seriously like to 
see a distribution based on the OpenSolaris kernel and the same user 
programs you'd find in a current Linux or *bsd distro.  If nothing else, 
it would be an interesting exercise in testing Posix compatibility.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com