[ale] [EXTERNAL] Re: What divides Linux Distros?

[Leam Hall]

On Mon, Feb 8, 2021 at 9:36 AM Solomon Peachy via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:

> Meanwhile, you do realize that *everyone else* adopting systemd,
> reducing the operational difference between major distros, actually
> *reduces* lock-in and training needs, making it *simpler* to switch to
> Red Hat's competition?

While I agree with you that LP should not get threats because of the
software he's written, I haven't seen actual evidence of the threats.
Might just be me, but words are easy. Given LPs presentation, I'm not
sure how credible he is.

I do not have "insider information" on Red Hat, so take my thoughts as
just one more set of guesses. When we did foster parenting, the kids
would say all sorts of things, and make all sorts of promises. We had
to decide based on their behavior, not their words. One of the few
things I recall from grad school is "The only true indication of an
organization's priorities is their budget." In this case, RH's
behavior suggests they are moving away from "Linux" and attempting to
build a virtualization platform to compete with VMWare.

>From a business perspective, a "cloud/virtualization" product is a
much better revenue stream than a desktop OS. RH did a lot of great
stuff early on, and most of my Linux career has focused on RH. I don't
begrudge them the business refocus, and if systemd is an integral part
of that, more power to them.

For desktops and virtual nodes, systemd doesn't really add enough to
change my religion. There are competing virtualization products like
VMWare, HashiCorp, etc, so RH may or may not get a lot of market
share.