Four Linux Vendors Launch 'UnitedLinux,' Others May Join Soon (Open For Business)

Posted May 31, 2002 22:03 UTC (Fri) by proski (subscriber, #104) [Link]

Apart from the licensing issues, UnitedLinux is a very important effort. It's time to share ideas and expertize not only during the development cycle, but also during the integration cycle. Debian has been doing it for a while, but it's nice to see rpm-based distributions doing the same. I expect the quality of all 4 participating distributions to increase. This would widen the choice of those shopping for a solid, polished distribution with a low total cost of ownership (TCO).

However, I'm quite disappointed that the binaries, even those of software under GPL, won't be available online (if my understanding is correct and they didn't backpedaled in the meantime). It's easier for me to download a package off the net than to get a CD, put it to the drive, mount it and find the package I need. This is especially an issue if there is more than on CD, and that's almost definitely going to be the case.

This is a major inconvenience for the customers. And that may be the reason why Mandrake hesitates to join. I would prefer to see Mandrake uniting forces with distributions designed for home users, such as Lycoris.