[Nottingham] For info Fedora 17 out today

[Martin]

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On 29/05/12 15:59, david at gbenet.com wrote:
[---]
> We are talking about principle here - who decides - what users can
> and can not do. What software they are allowed to install and so
> on. It is a slippery slope.
[---]

I wonder if that is the key point?...


Just to take a look at all the spin-offs from the main distros, there
is an awful lot of choice for the style and software selection... A
little cladogram speaks volumes!

For Feb 2012:
http://futurist.se/gldt/wp-content/uploads/12.02/gldt1202.png



There is certainly some 'coercion' creeping in for the assumed
pressure to offer a strong "branded look and feel" to outshine the
proprietary ensnarements. However, even for the most strongly branded,
you can still easily choose from a bewildering choice of applications.

If you want to re-work the "look and feel", then you either need to
make up your own theme for whichever desktop of choice, or start for
yourself from the ground up...

Gentoo is fun, if you have time for your choice. If you don't have
time, then choose Sabayon where some things have been decided for you.

Or you can stay with whatever old distro and try compiling in new
applications as you wish. However, I would expect a lot of the new
stuff not to work because new features using new libraries will be
required. Things evolve and progress...

Is that where you then drop back to the much slower pace of change
with BSD?


I guess the ultimate has got to be the Haiku distro! Or for more
'frugal' choices, try Yoper or Zenwalk?

Now... Where did I see that RTTY emulator?... ;-)

Or there's a Raspberyy Pi! :-)


More seriously, the only corporate lock-down of Linux systems that I'm
suspicious of is that for the Bionic/Linux ("Android") system...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bionic_%28software%29

But then also, that is being shaped into something scarily successful
out there in the real corporate world...


We are very dependant on the GPL being followed.
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/quick-guide-gplv3.html

All change?

Cheers,
Martin

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