Free Software: the road to a Universal bundle, a powerful app store, and world domination (Free Software Magazine)

Posted Jan 6, 2011 14:32 UTC (Thu) by vonbrand (subscriber, #4458)
In reply to: Free Software: the road to a Universal bundle, a powerful app store, and world domination (Free Software Magazine) by RogerOdle
Parent article: Free Software: the road to a Universal bundle, a powerful app store, and world domination (Free Software Magazine)

I do not know when it will happen but I do believe that it will happen. An app store will be established that will have the effect of stabilizing a cross-distribution API. Applications written to this API will run everywhere. Each distribution will can maintain an ABI module to retain compatibility while allowing the various distributions to grow in their different ways.

Dream on.

This will have the effect of providing a solid core of applications that are portable across different releases of a particular distro so that the public can see stability without the system becoming stagnate.

It is called Linux Standard Base (LSB). And nobody uses it.

Government workers will want to take work home so they will need Linux there.

That one is solved as it is solved today: Want to work for/with us, make sure you have Windows version X with servicepack Y, configured like Z, and use only applications A, B and C in one of the versions we recommend.

Change "Windows" for "Linux" or "BeOS" or whatever in the above, it will stay exactly the same. Cross-system compatibility is a noble ideal, but a hell more work than it seems at first sight (yes, there are programs that depend on particular quirks/bugs; yes, it is a nightmare finding out why something doesn't work or fix it or (re)configure something on a distribution you're not used to; now add troubleshooting over the phone for Aunt Tillie).