“Corel based its new version of Linux on a variation of Linux
called Debian. Fans of Debian Linux had good reason to cheer, but
fans of some of the dozen or so other main Linux versions might
have wished that Corel had chosen a more “standard” version as a
model….”
“Debian Linux is a community project. Linux partisans probably
can argue that all of Linux is a community project because Linux is
the most successful example of Open Source software — software
that everyone (with no exceptions) is free to use and
improve….”
“This sounds like a bad imitation of 19th Century utopian
schmaltz. But the amazing thing is that it actually works. No,
that’s not what I mean. The amazing thing is that it actually works
WELL. Good open source software — free software, mind you —
is often far better than good commercial software, as anyone who
runs a large Web server using the famous Apache Web server software
can tell you. Apache is the best example of Open Source doing
what it does best at creating and maintaining a good software
program, just as Linux itself is the best example of how Open
Source can create and maintain a full operating system.”