Lord Ender said:
Suppose someone creates a very minimalist linux distro which includes a very good package management system. Suppose this package management system includes nearly all popular linux software packages.
Now suppose it were rather easy for anyone to install any number of those packages, bundle them together into one meta-package keyword, and call that a distro.
Then Linux would be as simple as installing the minimalist distro, then doing "apt-get install smartphone-system" for a distro customized for smartphones, or "media-system" for a distro customized for mediacenter PCs, etc.
I think this would be a superior option to having many completely independent distributions, and it would allow for faster innovation and easier support.
Then Linux would be as simple as installing the minimalist distro, then doing "apt-get install smartphone-system" for a distro customized for smartphones, or "media-system" for a distro customized for mediacenter PCs, etc.
I think this would be a superior option to having many completely independent distributions, and it would allow for faster innovation and easier support.
Every time I read one of these posts I'm reminded of this scene in the movie "Enemy of the State":
Miltary muscle: Can we get a feature scan of the guy with him?
Tech: No, he's smart, he never looks up.
Miltary muscle: So?
Tech: The satellite is 155 miles above the Earth. It can only look straight down.
Miltary muscle: That's a bit limited, isn't it?
Tech: [Sarcastically] Well, maybe you should design a better one.
Miltary muscle: Maybe I will.
The problem with your proposal is that it's not that simple. Smartphone system A may rely on kernel features that are incompatible with smartphone system B or maybe only on architecture C or when used with optional sub-package D of version E.
The people who design the kernel and the distributions aren't lacking in intelligence or ambition and please understand, I'm not saying that can't have some great insight that will work for a large number of people, but I am saying that the thing you've described doesn't sound new or innovative, it sounds naive.
On a side and only barely related note, Ender's Game may be my favorite novel of all time.