Wouter Verhelst <wouter <at> debian.org> writes: > Debian is the 'Universal' operating system, and many of our developers > (including myself) pride themselves on that. We port to many > architectures, we port to multiple kernels. It's one of the defining > features of Debian: you can run it /anywhere/
This is an almost religious argument. You take the value of running on multiple kernels as an article of faith, with no evaluation of the benefits (either to people directly using such ports, or possible feedback to the main distribution). It's hard to make rational arguments against such a position, other than to note that the position is irrational and causes practical harm where it interferes with rational decisions. I think one fallacy underlying that position is to consider supporting a new "first-class" object such as a new kernel as a big step towards "universality" even if it isn't actually that useful in many cases - being usable in one more niche Linux subcase could well mean more in practice than being usable with BSD kernel. I wonder how many developers actually "pride themselves" in the existence of the kFreeBSD or Hurd ports. I hope not too many. The Debian Linux distribution does have real value for users and for the development of free software. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/loom.20110719t230956-...@post.gmane.org
