Dorsai65's Journal: Distro Wars

Sigh.

As I've previously mentioned, there is a problem with the way Linux allows anybody and everybody to repackage it into their own 'distro' (distribution): a lack of standards (or at least common policies) that are leading to the fragmentation of Linux -- and thus slowing its acceptance by traditional Windows users.

By way of illustration, here's the deal on my recent attempt to install OpenOffice 3.

My current distro -- Kubuntu -- doesn't have OO3 available via repositories yet. That's fine; it's only been a couple of days, and I know it takes a certain amount of time for that to happen. So what I did instead was simply to download OO3 via torrent, and try to install it myself.

Well, that didn't work so well. Oh, the download and tgz extraction worked just fine, thank you very much. Where things went off into the weeds was the attempt to actually perform the installation. It seems that the folks at Ubuntu have a different idea of where things should go and how the directory structure should work than the nice people at OpenOffice: apparently, Ubuntu scattered OpenOffice files across several different directories -- which confused the Jeebus out of the OpenOffice installer and prevented the installation. The end result is that even though I've downloaded OO3, it won't update OR install, either at the system level OR in my home directory.

That's something that is utter, total bullshit.

I'm not laying this at the feet of the folks at Ubuntu (though they certainly share some of the blame). Nor am I pointing fingers at OpenOffice; I don't doubt that the program installs just fine on most other Linux distros.

Instead, I'm upset at the Linux developer/distribution communities. I'm all too aware of the various opinions as to where files, settings, and all the rest should go in the directory structure -- and it is the pig-headed jackassery of these assorted armies-of-all-that-is-right that is completely fucking up Linux. I think it's well-nigh time for them to put away their egos and opinions in favor of compromising with each other a bit so that there is some coherency and consistency in the Linux directory structure and installation process. Personally, I don't give a happy damn WHAT they ultimately decide as long as they settle on SOMETHING that works across distributions and platforms. 'usr' versus 'var'? It really doesn't fucking matter -- just PICK ONE and settle on it, will ya? RPM versus DEB? Why not both -- isn't Linux supposed to be about freedom? How 'free' are us humble users when software won't install because of the pissing contest between two sides in a battle over something that shouldn't even matter? How 'free' is Linux when different distributions are all but incompatible with each other? Are the various distros about freedom, or the distro owner's ego and 'status'? Why is it necessary to piss in the file hierarchy of an upstream application (like OpenOffice) before the app can be 'cleanly' included in the repositories for a particular distro?

If anyone has a reasonable, logical, and rational explanation for all this nonsense, I'd like to hear it -- I really would.