Linux deployment . . .

[Richmond Mathewson]

On 28/01/2010 15:47, Malte Pfaff-Brill wrote:
> Richmond wrote:
>    
>> How many people who favour continued Linux development think it might be
>> sensible
>> of RunRev to concentrate their efforts on one 'family' of Linux distros
>> (e.g. Debian derivatives) ?
>>      
> I certainly would appreciate having a list of distros being known to work without major flaws.
> If it is branded "Linux" I expect *any* distribution (as far as that may be possible) to work.
> If it was to say, works on UBUNTU and XYZ, for the rest you´re on your own my friend, I certainly could live with that.
> I think the major Problem is that there is no such thing as "Linux - the operating system". there are many of
> those out there. All a little different
> All the best,
>
>    
For quite a long time now the Ubuntu people have been urging people to 
say that their PC is
running Ubuntu rather than 'Linux'.

Now that quite a few Linux distros are mature operating systems it does 
seem as disingenuous
to describe Ubuntu or Red Hat as 'Linux' as describing Mac OS X as 
'UNIX', or Windows as 'DOS' (OK, OK,
I know Windows stopped "floating" on DOS back with Millennium).

5/6 years ago I spent about 6 months "messing around' with any number of 
'Linux' operating
systems (the CDs now come in extremely useful as firelighters) until I 
settled on Ubuntu, as that
suited my needs for my school. Ubuntu is the most popular desktop Open 
Source OS.

There are a variety of operating systems that are built on an Ubuntu 
foundation, so, as well as
speaking of 'Debian derivatives' (such as Ubuntu) we can now speak of 
'Ubuntu derivatives';
so it might be reasonable to label RunRev as "runs on Ubuntu and 
derivatives".
One would even have to be more careful as RunRev 4 'Linux' will not run 
on Ubuntu 5.10, but
will run on 8.04 (frankly cannot be bothered to test 'places' in 
between), nor can RR 4 standalones.

I also use 'Damn Small' on an old Pentium 2 with 32 MB RAM - keep it in 
the back of the car
for diagnostic stuff when people have problems with their networks - the 
thought of trying to run
RunRev or a standalone on it makes me feel very odd indeed.