Ex-Microsoftie: Free Software Will Kill Redmond (ComputerWorld)

Very good points.

On the other hand, distributions have to make their own packaging for two very simple reasons:
1. because that's the only way you can trust what's in the system, and
2. it's the only way you can make your own decisions.
You may not be aware of it, but Debian started more as a meta-distribution than a final user one. It was supposed to be a common base over which you can build on. Guess what? It didn't work. Each distro needs to be in control of its own destiny.

I agree with you that software vendors life could be made easier, the same way crappy release-and-forget hardware makers would see much easier times if the kernel supported binary drivers. But this approach is not exempt of problems, as Windows exemplifies so well.

Finally, I have no experience what so ever with Ubuntu server, but it would be nice indeed if integration with Ubuntu desktop (and Windows and Mac OS X) was easy.