Comments on: Distro Competition Sessions needed?

By: Mike McCallister

Mike McCallister — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 14:27:43 +0000

Excellent piece! We need a better way to display the differences between distributions while emphasizing the greater Linux community that supports all of us.

I’m always reminded of the time I went to a user group meeting a few years back to talk about “openSUSE Unleashed.” A guy pulled me over afterward and said it must suck to be tied to just one distribution. I admitted that while I still really like openSUSE, it is fun to see how other distributions work.

By: wobo

wobo — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 09:29:21 +0000

> Well, it could’ve been Mageia

I was asked by the initiator of the session whether I’d like to let Mandriva or Mageia participate (I was responsible for both in Chemnitz) but I decided to leave Mageia out of the competition becuase it is still Alpha(2) at the moment.

BTW: the initiator and moderator of the session did not want to use the word “Wettkampf” (competition), it was the organisation of the whole event who brought this up because it sounds more attractive :(. Same will possibly happen in Berlin Linuxtag in May.

By: JanKusanagi

JanKusanagi — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 09:04:53 +0000

Well, it could’ve been Mageia 😛

By: Klaas Freitag

Klaas Freitag — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:25:48 +0000

No problem, let me apologize for screwing the name, no intention behind it. I corrected it in the blog text. Thanks for notification.

By: wobo

wobo — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 18:50:15 +0000

>Strikes me that you seem to have such lack of knowledge about the major distribution names (there is no “Magiera” around) 🙂

After reading I realize that this may come around a bit offensive, sorry, it was not meant this way! I was only surprised!

By: Diederik van der Boor

Diederik van der Boor — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 18:14:20 +0000

> I think it should be realized as a benefit that we’re different,
> and that does not necessarily need to end up in a competition everywhere.

Very well said! One of the reasons companies/distro’s/etc. compete is because they have not figured out their unique aspects yet. Being all “same-same but different” means you’re fighting in the same pool, for the same bone. Being specialized in something allows both to stand out, without being competitors.

By: wobo

wobo — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:32:31 +0000

Let me pls correct a small error in the list of participants in Chemnitz. I don’t know who you are referring to as “Magiera” but I guess you mean “Mandriva Linux”. Strikes me that you seem to have such lack of knowledge about the major distribution names (there is no “Magiera” around) 🙂

But I agree to most points of your text. While I was a bit miffed by one guy taking the opportunity to marketing his distribution and his book rather than stick to the overall run of the session, I also see your point about comparing different fruits.

OTOH new users (the target group) are presented with these different distributions. Their primary interest should be to pick the right distro. So, a more general presentation would be asked for.

I saw the “competition” in Berlin and there the whole thing went much different. Instead of trying to compete the participants just showed their different solutions to the question (package management, updates) and even jumped in helpful when one of them got stuck in his presentation. This way they presented the common spirit of cooperation instead of competition.

By: damian

damian — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:31:11 +0000

Hi, I think that what should be tested in these competitions is what each distro does best, for example kubuntu did some work for kde about printing dialogs, and I think some pulseaudio, if this stuff is good, it should get to other distributions.
Also if one distribution handles multimedia better because it has backend X and library Y, then they should be used in the other distributions (as long as distributions philosophies are respected of course).
With this I mean, If ,just an example, fedora got vlc phonon backend to consume less cpu, then the other distrubutions should package it/ patch it the same way if it works better (also contribute upstream of course).