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A couple of articles relating to the thread on Ubuntu alternatives and Linux desktop distributions in general. Linux Mint 12 "Lisa" now available, is most popular open source OS http://www.slashgear.com/linux-mint-12-lisa-now-available-is-most-popular-open-source-os-29198793/ In just the last twelve months, Linux Mint has surpassed Ubuntu as the most popular open source operating system on open source ranking website DistroWatch. Why, you ask? Perhaps because the latter has been looking with a new perspective on the user interface, and begun aiming at mobile platforms instead. However, note that Linux Mint is actually built on Ubuntu, so it has quite a few of Ubuntu's advantages while doing away with some of its shortcomings... I thought Mint was still pretty much a minority player, though we shouldn't confuse DistroWatch rankings with how widely deployed a distribution is. I'm sure Ubuntu, which spent years at or near the top of the DistroWatch rankings, still dwarfs the number of Mint deployments. Still, DistroWatch could be accurately reflecting a trend... I see that this version of Mint uses GNOME 3, so don't expect Mint to insulate you from substantial UI changes. The article describes it as "a solid desktop interface that isn't trying to do something crazy. " Elsewhere Alex Handy in an SDTimes blog posting looks at the problem of Linux OS upgrades from a server/application developer-perspective: http://www.sdtimes.com/blog/post/2011/09/16/Youre-doin-it-wrong.aspx ...there really isn't a 10-year Linux. ...when it comes to long term support...you're looking at 2 to 5 years of support, max. You can't use Debian, because their release cycle is glacial. You can't use Ubuntu because their release cycle is break-neck. Is there room for a Linux that is released once a year, but each year's release has all security patches and bug fixes ported to previous versions? ...the short answer...is no. But this isn't because the market is moving away...It's because we're all doing it wrong. In 2003, you didn't want to touch the OS layer. Your app worked on a single instance of an OS, and it ran on a specific version, due to some requirement, or compatibility issue. But today, that whole paradigm of sticking with an old system to avoid change is rather wrong headed. When it comes down to it, if you're building a Web application, you really don't need to worry about the OS layer too much. The days of a Linux kernel patch breaking your application should really be behind you. When it comes right down to it, it's the items in your stack over which you should be executing version control. The right versions of the right libraries and components are still essential, and likely will be for years to come. But the actual OS you're using should be getting more and more irrelevant. The OS is just the container for your application... So, we're now drawing a line in the sand. If you're worried about upgrading an OS that's below a Web or mobile application, you're doing it wrong. And, of course, the inverse of this whole blog entry seems also to be true: as the OS layer becomes less relevant, there's less reason to upgrade it, ever. If it works, you might as well keep that virtual machine and disk image in its present state forever. (I've edited this heavily, removing several qualifiers the author included, so if you disagree with his premise, read the full text first.) While this is talking about web apps running on servers, you should be able to extrapolate the same ideas to the desktop...yet you can't. Surprisingly the core of the OS - the kernel - is actually relatively easy to upgrade without upgrading the full OS. Instead the linchpin for any desktop OS version seems to be the libc version and secondly the GUI environment version. -Tom -- Tom Metro Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA "Enterprise solutions through open source." Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/
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