R.I.P. Meego

[SteveRiley]

Sad day yesterday for what had appeared to be a promising project:

By now, you may have read that The Linux Foundation, with the support of several other companies, announced a new project, Tizen, to build a new operating system for devices. This new project is first and foremost open source, and based on Linux. So it begs the question: why not just evolve MeeGo? We believe the future belongs to HTML5-based applications, outside of a relatively small percentage of apps, and we are firmly convinced that our investment needs to shift toward HTML5.... Over the next couple of months, we will be working very hard to make sure that users of MeeGo can easily transition to Tizen, and I will be working even harder to make sure that developers of MeeGo can also transition to Tizen....

There are too many Linux distros. Sure, diversity is a useful, even necessary, attribute for survival. But near limitless choice actually induces paralysis, and often forces people to retreat to what's comfortable rather than explore new frontiers. Imagine how much more of an impact Linux could have if competing factions (that are actually working toward common goals) tried, for once, to cooperate?

[GreyGeek]

Re: R.I.P. Meego

I'm reminded of a scene from the movie "Amadeus" in which the King yawns at one of Mozart's operas. When asked if he liked the opera the King didn't exactly know what to say but his music minister replied that "There are too many notes". Offended, Mozart asks "Too many notes? There are neither more or less than what is required. Which notes would his majesty like me to remove?" Mozart was daring, but so was his music. That is why it has lasted for two hundred years while the music of his contemporaries has not.

While there certainly is a lot of different Linux distros available to choose from, only knowledgeable Linux users are aware of even a few of them. I suspect that most Linux users could not name from memory more than a dozen, off hand. Most shown in the distro list on DistroWatch are niche distros, using modified releases from a Debian, RedHat or Slackware based distro for a specific purpose or itch that the creator has, and it matters not a whit to him if his distro becomes popular or not. Many of them could be considered abandonware and with no market presence what so ever.

Debian is well known because it is the "MotherShip" for many distros, popular or not. Ubuntu is well known because Shuttlesworth sinks $10M/year into it to keep it well known. RedHat (Fedora) is well known because of its corporate presence in America, and it is the first FOSS company to go over $1 Billion in market cap. SUSE is/was well known because of Novell. Mandriva was a slight commercial success, but it did advertise, which got the word about Linux out. Someone introduced to these few often start looking for others and run across PCLinuxOS, MEPIS, Mint, etc. The "second tier" distros.

As in nature, diversity is an asset, not a liability. It guarantees that life has a chance to survive as conditions change. Monocultures are bad. They do not adapt well to changing conditions, they are highly susceptible to single mode attack vectors, and they tend to oppress the naturally occurring flora and fauna. Kudzu in the South East, rabbits in Australia, or Microsoft in PC Land come to mind.

Even now, with Linux holding the largest desktop market share it has ever held, well over 10%, there is very little advertizing by any Linux distro makers, even the big five. Linux is spreading by word of mouth, and that word has five names in it. I am not sure that five represents enough choices to induce paralysis. Having dozens of autos to choose from doesn't paralyze putative car buyers into not buying. Neither does seeing a large number of bars on a strip freeze a beer drinker with fear. What usually happens is that someone hears from someone that they've gotten "tired" of fighting Windows infections and "heard" that Joe Blow runs Linux (what's that?) and they ask Joe. Joe shows them his box. He promises to help them if they have trouble. They are overjoyed! Free technical help!!! Joe installs it. He shows them that the mouse works the same way in Kubuntu as it does in Windows. He gives them a quick rundown on where their favorite apps are in the menu structure. Off they go. A year later Joe sees the person and asks how their Linux install is going. "Fine! I had no problems so I didn't need to call for help." I have over two dozen of my friends in that situation right now.

What you are witnessing is a chain reaction, where one Linux user creates two by word of mouth. It starts out slowly, but the rate of growth is still exponential, like any chain reaction. It's only near the end that the number of fissions become asymptotic with the Y-Axis. We are on the cusp of that asymptote now.

[SteveRiley]

Re: R.I.P. Meego

That is why it has lasted for two hundred years while the music of his contemporaries has not.

A college buddy of mine scanned 100,000 individual measures from various Mozart works into a computer program he wrote. He created a simple algorithm that instructed the program how to recognize connectable measures by examining note patterns and lengths, slurs, accents, rhythm, and other indicators. The user interface was simple: you indicated a key, a duration, and a tempo. The program then stitched together a "new" Mozart composition using the 100,000 bars as source material. What a lot of fun. Ever since playing with that thing, whenever I listen to his French horn concertos (I've played them all, many times) or clarinet concertos or whatever, they tend to sound the same to me. That said, he certainly was a musical revolutionary for his time.

Neither does seeing a large number of bars on a strip freeze a beer drinker with fear.

Yes, but I'd wager 95% of every bar's occupants is drinking the same lightweight rat piss that passes for beer in this country!

What you are witnessing is a chain reaction, where one Linux user creates two by word of mouth. It starts out slowly, but the rate of growth is still exponential, like any chain reaction.

Oh gawd, Linux is like shampoo Noooo!

[GreyGeek]

Re: R.I.P. Meego

Beer? I thought it was from Panthers, not Rats, but thinking about it I believe your are correct!!

As far as shampoo and Linux, cue the evil laugh!!!

[bsniadajewski]

Re: R.I.P. Meego

Not in Wisconsin. There's a reason one of our pro sports teams is called the "Brewers".