Bored with Distros, China Tries Again, and Recompiling Kernels
Today in Linux news Fedora Project leader Matthew Miller says folks are bored with Linux distributions. After the Red Flag failure, China is looking to develop another homegrown operating system. Paul Venezia has more on the raging systemd wars and the Linux Tycoon says recompiling the kernel is getting him down. And finally tonight, NetworkWorld has the top 10 things you should know about Red Hat 7.
The Register today published a piece on Matthew Millers talks at LinuxCon last week saying, "Matthew Miller is a little concerned. He worries that to everyone else, Fedora – and Linux distros in general – are getting a little, well … boring." He said just look at the number of Linux distribution booths at the conference as an indication of interest. There were none this year because folks haven't been visiting those types of booths much anymore. Even Google searches indicate a waning interest according to Miller. He seems to think it's partly because of GitHub and Docker give developers other showcases besides popular distributions. As a result, Miller thinks Fedora will end up splitting into three different products: desktop, gadgets/cloud, and servers. The Register's Neil McAllister thinks a "CoreOS" could very well be the next incarnation of Linux systems.
ZDNet's Chris Duckett, among others, are covering a story out of China this last weekend reporting that a new homegrown China operating system, first for the desktop then other devices, will debut in October. China has been on a campaign of sorts against Microsoft and other US suppliers for several years fearing surveillance, monopolies, and espionage. Although unsaid, Linux is likely a key ingredient in their new OS.
Paul Venezia continues his coverage and discussion into the raging systemd debate today saying, "Fundamental changes in the structure of most Linux distributions should not be met with such fervent opposition." Perhaps more testing and feedback time should have been given before the mass migration to systemd. Venezia says, "I think this exposes a separation of the Linux community: between those who were deep into Unix before Linux came on the scene and those who came later." Unix and Linux were designed to be easy to use and fix. But Linux of late has become a bunch of complicated subsystems that take all of the fun (and ease) out of it.
In other news:
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* Linux Supplier Red Hat Is Set For Strong Gains
* 10 things you need to know about Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7