Enterprise Mac | Tom Yager » The trouble with "try another distribution" for uncooperative Linux

June 30, 2006 | Comments: (0)

The trouble with "try another distribution" for uncooperative Linux

TAGS: Politics, strategy and culture, Software

Several commenters reading my Showering after Linux post offered a helpful solution to my troubles installing and configuring Novell SLES: Try a different distribution.

That's the ideal, and it was my eventual solution. I'm partial to Debian, and helpful commenters' suggestions reminded me of an interest I took in Ubuntu early in its life. Its stated goal of producing a commercial-grade distribution that will always be completely free and open strikes me as the best definition of open source, but I have not yet pursued Ubuntu. In general, Linux is something I use only by prescription; I don't find recreational or educational value in it (ditto for Windows), so I don't do a much distributional spelunking.

I did find the latest Xandros release waiting on my desk when I arrived this morning. The timing suggests either quirky coincidence or a classy response to my post. Either way, thanks to Xandros for sending it. I'm taking a detour this afternoon to set it up.

"Try another distribution" is as good a distillation of the Linux philosophy as any, but enterprise server software vendors limit one's choices severely. ISVs like IBM and Oracle tend to list two or three (Red Hat, SUSE and perhaps one wildcard) specific commercial Linux distributions in their system requirements. IT is forced to abide by this restriction to qualify for vendor support. Many in the pool of IT talent have narrowed their skills to specialize in those top two commercial solutions. I'm a big fan of paths not taken, but taking a side road in enterprise software always makes support and staffing more difficult.

I make it my practice to operate within the confines of IT's reality. Shrink-wrapped software that can't take itself from uninstalled to basic functionality, transparency and manageability is really made to come through the doors in a consultant's briefcase. The cost and loss of control associated with that is another reason IT buys prepackaged software and preconfigured servers.

In other words, mine was not the experience that commercial Linux leads me to expect, and my recent disappointing experience with commercial Linux is consistent with those I've had in the past. Freeware and client Linux distributions hit the shrink wrap design target more easily, but they are a hard sell to IT as foundations for solutions of scale or which are critical to the business.

However, don't misread my words. Commercial Unix is the ideal off-the-rack solution. There is a world of difference between Linux and Unix. It's a pity that's getting glossed over right now, but that won't last.

Now, it is also my practice to offer gentle guidance by defining terms commonly misapplied. As careful readers peruse comments to this blog, they may find it helpful to keep my latest such contribution, which term defined will make itself apparent, close at hand: "To attract attention by disruptively insinuating one's self into a community of like-minded individuals and expressing a contrived or unsubstantiated, diametrically opposed position in a demeaning, insulting, offensive, condescending, accusatory or patronizing manner."

Posted by Tom Yager on June 30, 2006 03:14 PM

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