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Originally Posted by King
I don’t think you guys understand what Linux is about; it’s about choice… so making everything the same with standards is going totally against that.
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I thought Linux (and open source as a whole) was about creating and allowing others to improve upon the ideas and foundations of others.
The fact of the matter is 10-15 years ago not everyone had the technical know-how or the desire and drive to create their own flavor of *nix. Choices were wide open, because expectations were virtually non-existant. Open a window, use a library here or there and you were good to go.
Now applications are getting increasingly more complex, users are expecting more from their programs, and the range of choices has increased exponentially. Developers are faced with a problem, do you optimize for one flavor of *nix? Do you use overly generic dependancies, and hope they work, or some mix therein.
Having a set 'standard' and a minimal 'core Linux' would provide base functionaltiy that <<standard compliance name>> compliant OS's and interfaces will handle. It doesn't mean that all flavors of *NIX will need to conform to that. Rather if it complies, developers can say that their Programs will work, as expected, efficiently straight out of the box.
This provides a much more open environment to both create and share software for (lets face the fact) a Non-windows environment, quicker and easier, without having to worry about testing for all of the dozens of splintered API's. Any more spreading ideas in applications is just as important as spreading ideas in the OS.
And don't think this will be the end of OS innovation either, people will always be trying to improve upon the core functions, or be suggesting things to add/remove. There will probablly be compliant and non-compliant versions of each major distro for those who want a FOB install, and those that want a tweak-ier install.
Not being as familiar with Linux anymore I don't know how many of these libraries and what not are out there. I remember having troubles with differences between X and K desktops when I tinkered with that stuff, and maybe that's gotten better, but congruance between the two was always frustrating.
-MBirchmeier