“The release last week of Turbo- Linux Inc.’s server clustering
software raised concerns about whether the Linux community can
prevent a divergence of versions — or forking — when vendors
start making unilateral changes in the open operating system’s
kernel.”
“TurboLinux’s software, TurboCluster, isn’t the only Linux
clustering effort, so there’s no guarantee the Linux world will
adopt its changes to the kernel. If competing software ends up in
the mainstream kernel instead, it would be a fork, albeit a minor
one, observers said.”
“According to analyst Tony Iams at D.H. Brown &
AssociatesInc. in Port Chester, N.Y., Linux creator and kernel
arbiter Linus Torvalds should take TurboLinux’s changes
seriously because high-availability clustering has been a major
weakness of Linux.
There is precedent for Torvalds quickly deciding to incorporate
changes to the kernel produced by commercial developers, Iams
said.”