[CS-FSLUG] Linux Today - Is desktop Linux too fragmented to succeed? A friend tells it like it is!!

[Karl Kleinpaste]

Eduardo Sánchez <lists at sombragris.org> writes:
> I am not surprised at all, since it follows the Red Hat philosophy: 
> Compile with absolutely zero optimizations, make a lot of changes and 
> patches to upstream releases, and release them to the unsuspecting 
> public without testing, or even warning.

Oh, stop it.

If you had the first idea how much hassle I'm going through, trying to
get Xiphos to replace GnomeSword for the Fedora repository management
folks, you would not be so bold about making claims of "patches to
upstream releases," "zero optimizations," and "without testing."  It's
not even a "new" package, it's a new name for an existing package, to
obsolete the old, yet the fact that it has a new name has engaged the
full "new package evaluation" machinery, subject to which rather a lot
of (deserved) code changes have been made, and even a few glitches in
documentation re: under exactly what license we operate.

I am reminded of RH's behavior when (for RH9, I think) they announced 6
months in advance that they would be replacing the then-current thread
library.  Huge amounts of effort were expended in getting notification
out and ensuring that anyone and everyone who ever even had a small part
in a minor player's dream about the possibility of forming a committee
to debate the advisability of writing threaded code had the resources
necessary to get it done, get it right, and get it in on time.

I've been a RedHat/Fedora user for a very long time.  There have been
good reasons to complain at them now and again, but this sort of
over-the-top "EVERYTHING they do is WRONG" whine is absolutely nonsense,
and does nothing other than to discredit any other actually-reasonable
critique you might have.