Local distributions [LWN.net]

Local distributions

Posted Jun 2, 2004 9:00 UTC (Wed) by angdraug (subscriber, #7487)
Parent article: Interview: Nirav Mehta of newly launched Utkarsh.org (NewsForge)

I always wondered what are the problems that local distribution solves that can't be solved by localizing global distribution like Debian.

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Local distributions

Posted Jun 3, 2004 15:52 UTC (Thu) by kreutzm (subscriber, #4700) [Link]

Yes, this is what I thought of as well, since I am involved in translating Debian and all the efforts going in. Recently there was an announcement, that
especially asian and african languages where missing. Such cooperation would for sure improve the quality of both efforts.

Local distributions

Posted Jun 5, 2004 3:24 UTC (Sat) by jaldhar (subscriber, #7476) [Link]

Being Gujarati and a Debian developer myself, I will be looking to borrow
everything I can from utkarsh and package it for the One True
Distribution. But to answer your question, a big reason to base off of
Fedora/Red Hat is commercial support. There is a lot of enterprise stuff
out there which is only designed for/supported under Red Hat. Debian
simply can't provide that kind of support. I want Linux to be not just a
hobby or a political statement but an engine that helps expand the
Gujarati economy.

I always describe Debian as "your second Linux distribution." Let my
countrymen get started with Utkarsh. When they're hooked on Linux is
when we move in. ;-)

Local distributions

Posted Jun 8, 2004 10:06 UTC (Tue) by angdraug (subscriber, #7487) [Link]

Ah, so the reason to start separate local distribution is that you can localize Debian, but when you want Red Hat or similar, you have to do your own distro? I will add that to my list of Debian advocacy arguments...

As a second thought, I still see holes in you argument in favor of Red Hat. If Utkarsh folks create their own distro, it will inevitably deviate from Red Hat far enough that the blessed enterprise stuff will no longer work, or at least work no better in any other LSB-compliant distro. OTOH if the driver is availability of commercial support services (as opposed to support by commercial software) specifically for Red Hat, I don't see why this is not a Red Hat localization project. If local support infrastructure is not Red Hat specific, it could provide Debian support service just fine.