119 lines
4.8 KiB
Markdown
119 lines
4.8 KiB
Markdown
---
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created_at: '2013-05-06T18:31:50.000Z'
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title: Linux is not about choice (2008)
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url: http://www.redhat.com/archives/rhl-devel-list/2008-January/msg00861.html
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author: emillon
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points: 295
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story_text: ''
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comment_text:
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num_comments: 231
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story_id:
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story_title:
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story_url:
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parent_id:
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created_at_i: 1367865110
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_tags:
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- story
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- author_emillon
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- story_5663926
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objectID: '5663926'
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---
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[Source](https://www.redhat.com/archives/rhl-devel-list/2008-January/msg00861.html "Permalink to Linux is not about choice [was Re: Fedora too cutting edge?]")
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# Linux is not about choice [was Re: Fedora too cutting edge?]
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* * *
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[[Date Prev][1]][[Date Next][2]] [[Thread Prev][3]][[Thread Next][4]] [[Thread Index][5]] [[Date Index][6]] [[Author Index][7]]
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# Linux is not about choice [was Re: Fedora too cutting edge?]
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* * *
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* _From_: Adam Jackson <ajackson redhat com>
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* _To_: Development discussions related to Fedora <fedora-devel-list redhat com>
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* _Subject_: Linux is not about choice [was Re: Fedora too cutting edge?]
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* _Date_: Wed, 09 Jan 2008 15:58:45 -0500
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* * *
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> Linux is about choice.
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If I could only have one thing this year, it would be to eliminate that
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meme from the collective consciousness. It is a disease. It strangles
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the mind and ensures you can never change anything ever because someone
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somewhere has OCD'd their environment exactly how they like it and how
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dare you change it on them you're so mean and next time I have friends
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over for Buffy night you're not invited mom he's sitting on my side
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again.
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As a consumer, yes, you have lots of choices in which Linux you use.
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This does not mean Linux is in any sense _about_ choice, any more than
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because there are so many kinds of cars you can buy that cars are about
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choice.
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The complaints up-thread about juju and pulse are entirely valid, but
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the solution is not to try to deliver two things at once. If you try to
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deliver both at once you have to also deliver a way of switching between
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the two. Now you have three moving parts instead of one, which means
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the failure rate has gone up by a factor of _six_ (three parts, and
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three interactions). We have essentially already posited that we have
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insufficient developer effort to have 100%-complete features at ship
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time, so asking them to take on six times the failure rate when they're
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already overburdened is just madness. Alternatively, we could say that
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we're integrating features too rapidly, but you do that at the expense
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of goal 1, to be the showcase for the latest and greatest in free
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software.
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Software is hard. The way to fix it is to fix it, not sweep it under
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the rug.
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There is a legitimate discussion to be had about where and how we draw
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the line for feature inclusion, about how we increase and formalize our
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testing efforts, and about how we develop and deploy spike solutions for
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corner-case problems like the one device class that juju happens to do
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worse than the old stack. But the chain of logic from "Linux is about
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choice" to "ship everything and let the user chose how they want their
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sound to not work" starts with fallacy and ends with disaster.
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- ajax
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* * *
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* **Follow-Ups**:
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* [**Re: Linux is not about choice [was Re: Fedora too cutting edge?]][4]**
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* _From:_ Jesse Keating
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* [**Re: Linux is not about choice [was Re: Fedora too cutting edge?]][8]**
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* _From:_ Dave Airlie
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* [**Re: Linux is not about choice [was Re: Fedora too cutting edge?]][9]**
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* _From:_ Thorsten Leemhuis
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* [**Re: Linux is not about choice [was Re: Fedora too cutting edge?]][10]**
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* _From:_ David Zeuthen
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* [**Re: Linux is not about choice [was Re: Fedora too cutting edge?]][11]**
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* _From:_ John Dennis
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* [**Re: Linux is not about choice [was Re: Fedora too cutting edge?]][12]**
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* _From:_ Patrice Dumas
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* **References**:
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* [**Fedora too cutting edge?][13]**
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* _From:_ Hans de Goede
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* [**Re: Fedora too cutting edge?][14]**
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* _From:_ Thorsten Leemhuis
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[[Date Prev][1]][[Date Next][2]] [[Thread Prev][3]][[Thread Next][4]] [[Thread Index][5]] [[Date Index][6]] [[Author Index][7]]
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[1]: https://www.redhat.com/msg00860.html
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[2]: https://www.redhat.com/msg00862.html
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[3]: https://www.redhat.com/msg00859.html
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[4]: https://www.redhat.com/msg00863.html
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[5]: https://www.redhat.com/thread.html#00861
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[6]: https://www.redhat.com/date.html#00861
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[7]: https://www.redhat.com/author.html#00861
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[8]: https://www.redhat.com/msg00865.html
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[9]: https://www.redhat.com/msg00869.html
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[10]: https://www.redhat.com/msg00871.html
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[11]: https://www.redhat.com/msg00875.html
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[12]: https://www.redhat.com/msg00888.html
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[13]: https://www.redhat.com/msg00845.html
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[14]: https://www.redhat.com/msg00848.html
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