As a newbie to Linux and Debian I have to say I almost entirely agree with George, and had even thought about writting something on this subject myself. Before I understood about the numbering system it really threw me for a loop to hear that my ISP was using Debian 1.1 (he's very conservative), but that Red Hat was on 5.1 . I was like "huh? is this all the same OS we're talking about here? Then my ISP said "well the kernal is only stable at version 1.(something or other - which was true at the time a few months back). And what that did was to enlighten me that their might be some OTHER numbers besides the distrib # that I should pay attention to. This is really quite confusing to the newcomer, and a good comparison number (perhaps the LSB?) would be very useful so that people can shop for distributions intelligently. I don't think we need to erect any artificial barriers to entry -- learning Linux is already challenging enough. It would be great to be able to focus on just one number.
My perception is that Linux is on the verge of an explosion. I can use myself as an example. I am not the kind of guy who just likes to fool with technical stuff for the hell of it -- like that amusing exchange yesterday between a couple of guys commenting about how Debian was getting too easy to use and that they had to break things intentionally to make life exciting. ;-) Linux has been largely founded on this kind of person so far. But now you are about to see the next wave hit. I (and others like me) am the kind of forward-looking person who when I see the usefulness of something, I jump on it (but not until its use becomes appearent and accesible). I am perpetually ahead of the main body and I am a natural evangelist. I and people like me lead others who are of the main body into new endevours (in this case Linux). You might not care for the unwashed masses, but don't look now, but a very big wave of them is coming our way. I know its been comfortable being part of a small, tightly-knit community. Like it or not though, things are changing. I see the challenge as this -- is the Debian community scalable? Can we handle, accept, nay welcome the infusion of fresh ideas and personalities into our community? Or do we shrink from the challenge and run away and hide? If we aren't growing (in some sense of the word, not necessarily numerically) then we are dying. The choice is ours -- to live and grow or die. Regards, Marcus -- Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] < /dev/null
