“To me, the bigger concern is what could happen with our own
players. While the scenario I outline below could happen with any
Linux distribution manufacturer, I use Red Hat as an example
because they are in the news again with their purchase of Hell’s
Kitchen Systems.”
“Red Hat has done a good job of establishing their brand so
that many see Red Hat and Linux as synonymous. This is very similar
to the earlier practice of referring to computers as IBM machines.
It makes business sense on Red Hat’s part, but also helps them grow
at the expense of at least the other Linux distribution
vendors. I feel it is also at the expense of the Linux
community as a whole because, taken to the extreme, we end up with
a fragmented Linux market competing against Microsoft….”
“Is There an Alternative?
I feel there is. The first step was establishing the Linux
Standards Base project. This is an effort to create a core
functionality made available by Linux. Once in place, vendors will
be able to port to this standard and test their software against a
standard distribution. If their software runs against the standard,
then it should run on any Linux distribution subscribing the the
LSB standards effort. Unfortunately, LSB could be too late.”