questions about distributions

[sstirling at mediaone.net (Scott Stirling)]

Hmmm, sounds like a homework assignment, but I'll bite.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Christoph Doerbeck A242369" <cdoerbec at cso.fmr.com>
>
> howdy folks,
>
> I'm assembling a document on various distributions of linux and need some
of
> your help.  Any and all comments are welcome...  My focus is to outline
> which distributions I want to compare in depth at in the next phase of my
> research.  My current scope has been reduced to the following.
>
> Debian / SuSE / Caldera / Corel / RedHat
>
> Questions:
>
> Have SMP enabled kernels?  Or will I be required to do a kernel build?

I've never installed a Linux distro on an SMP machine.  I wonder what
provisions the distros have or haven't made for detecting SMPs and
configuring the kernel appropriately.

> If you had to describe each distribution in 20 words what would you say?

20 words:
RedHat - most popular, tons of financial backing, de facto standard, easy to
install, excellent software selection, support and WWW resources, frequent
version releases.

Caldera - no brainer install, but uses unconventional files and
configurations.  Also well-backed financially.  Wondering what it's edge
will be against RedHat in the future.

SuSE - lags behihd other distros in keeping up with the latest and greatest,
YAST sucks, never got much further than installing and saying "that's nice"
with this one.

Debian - great reputation for being the pursist's distro. 2.1 was a bitch to
install. Can they keep up with the latest and greatest in their distros?  If
not, why make the distro so huge?  Why version the distro after the glibc
version?

Corel - no idea.  Based on Debian, will come with Corel software ported for
Linux, but big deal.

These are all variations on a theme (except Debian maybe).  What about
Slackware, LinuxPPC, YellowDog or TurboLinux?  Something that contrasts more
with the others?  Maybe the goal was to compare the most similar ones?

> What is the focus, how does it differ from others?

See above.

> If you had to choose just one as a server platform on i86 architecture,
what
> would you pick

RedHat.  Big businesses want to focus on a target, and little businesses
will follow.  Lots and lots of big companies are supporting RedHat as the
distro of choice.  If key libraries and file structures can be standardized
more in the future, then maybe companies can afford to market, develop and
support for many distros, but realistically it makes sense to stick with one
that works, has a good user base, and has the momentum.

Server-side Java is huge and will continue to grow dramatically as EJBs,
servlet engines, applcation servers (like ColdFusion, WebSphere, WebLogic)
and other web servers (like iPlanet) move into the Linux world.  RedHat is
well-positioned for this arena.  However, the desktop market may be a
totally different story.  Would it be better to have distros optimized for
servers and others optimized for workstations/desktops?  Sure!  We could
even have user-level thread libraries implemented for servers (see
www.gnu.org--Ralph Engelshall is working on a cross-platform user-level
thread library), and Apache 2.x could possibly far out-perform Apache 1.x.
Linux could scale like Solaris, HP-UX, and Tru64.  And this while the home
user keeps a trimmed down version of everything.

Hopefully the GUI/Window-manager/productivity improvements could bleed into
the serious server/programmer world, while the home user remained
unencumbered by server software.  I guess a big question to remain
unanswered for a while is whether Linux will truly pervade the desktop
market.  I think there's two totally different ballparks there, and the
winners may be those who branch off to specialize.  Right now, I feel all
the distros listed above are gathering critical mass and looking for
self-definition.  When it comes, some will merge and others will diverge
more sharply into special niches.  That's my guess.

Scott Stirling
West Newton, MA





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