“Divergence is healthy. That is the message from LinuxWorld
Expo in New York, where Elizabeth Coolbaugh, executive editor for
LWN.net (Linux Weekly News), predicts this diversity will produce
an explosion of Linux in embedded devices such as handheld
computers.”
“There are currently 188 different versions of Linux. Once it
was feared this ever-growing number of distributions might threaten
the success of the upstart operating system in the same way that it
affected the success of commercial versions of Unix.”
“However, this diversity is now being identified as one of its
most attractive characteristics. Coolbaugh says the escalating
number of Linux distributions is symptomatic of the adaptability
the GNU General Public Licence (GPL) gives the operating system.
Under this licence, new versions can be created, changed and reused
cheaply and developers can borrow each other’s source code.”