Raymond Knocks Fedora, Switches to Ubuntu

narramissic writes "After 13 years as a loyal Red Hat user, Eric Raymond, co-founder of the Open Source Initiative, is switching to the Ubuntu distribution. In a message distributed to Linux mailing lists and news organizations, Raymond cited technical issues with Red Hat, such as the way repositories are maintained, the submission process and 'stagnant' development of Red Hat's packaging technology, as well as governance problems, the failure to gain desktop market share and the failure to include proprietary media formats. 'Over the last five years, I've watched Red Hat/Fedora throw away what was at one time a near-unassailable lead in technical prowess, market share and community prestige,' Raymond wrote. 'The blunders have been legion on both technical and political levels.'"

Re:This just in...

[grolschie]

Eric "ass" Raymond is still a self-important arrogant gas-baron.

But, Everybody Loves Raymond.

Re:Didn't realise this was ESR

[garcia]

Can you imagine Bill Gates telling Steve Jobs to go screw himself? In fact, I just recently saw some photos of those two hanging out at some social function, chatting and getting along fine. Now my head is filled with the image of Gates and Jobs living it up and having a laugh, with Cox and Raymond hunched over their computers in the background banging out enraged emails to one another.

Yeah, you just pointed out what I would have imagined. Two people who despise each other at some stupid public social function pretending that they are all honky dory while one is ready to take a clue from a co-worker and throw a chair and the other wants to give a wedgie.

And Alan Cox just told Eric Raymond to go and die.

Can you imagine Alan Cox looking clean cut and impressive at an interview instead of looking very much like the GNU logo? Yeah, neither can I.

News

[Sloppy]

I guess I can see how it's big news that such an important person [geekz.co.uk] has switched distributions. No wait, actually I don't see at all.

Why I care about ESR's preferred distribution

[timotten]

But I'll tell you what - after seeing slashdot, and this here story I'm about to unfold, well, I guess I seen somethin' every bit as stupefyin' as you'd seen in any of them other places. So I can die with a smile on my face, without feelin' like the good Lord gypped me. Now this here story I'm about to unfold took place in the late '90s - just about the time of our conflict with Milo and the Kosovars. I only mention it because sometimes there's a man... I won't say a hero, 'cause, what's a hero? Sometimes, there's a man. And I'm talkin' about ESR here - ESR from slashdot. Sometimes, there's a man, well, he's the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that's ESR. ESR, from slashdot. And even if he's a drama queeen - and ESR was most certainly that. Quite possibly the drama queeniest in all of slashdot, which would place him high in the runnin' for drama queeniest worldwide. Sometimes there's a man, sometimes, there's a man. Well, I lost my train of thought here. But... aw, hell. I've done introduced it enough...

Re:Fedora Responds

[Anonymous Coward]

As to getting a "pure" 64bit FC6 system, well you can't really do that since some of the "x86_64" packages include 32bit versions libraries for compatibility reasons and ease of packaging, but you can still prune the entire i?86 RPM dependency tree from top to bottom (glibc). The only gotcha is that blah blah blah blah, and are thus safe to uninstall without breaking anything.

I think I speak for all normal human beings when I say, what the fuck?

That's exactly the kind of shit ESR is talking about

Re: Ubuntu Logo?

[nbritton]

Ye who asks shall receive: http://blog.levhita.net/wp-content/uploads/2006/07 /ubuntu-logo.jpg [levhita.net]

No wonder people are switching...

Re:s/Fedors/ESR/

[PCM2]

Even if he is Lucifer himself, that doesn't make his arguments any less or more valid.

Umm... I think by definition that actually would make his arguments less valid.

Re:Why make a stink?

[Rimbo]

Exactly. And for that matter, why the hell should Linus care what DE I ( and a great deal of people ) like to use? Just because Linus likes KDE doesn't mean Gnome is a POS.

True: Gnome is a POS because it has all the features and functionality of Windows 3.0 eighteen years later, and a fervent desire to continue limiting what the user can do.

Re:Fedora Responds

[Just Some Guy]

The system is fucking stupid because it still leaves you in dependency hell. I don't really know how people can find the stomach to dispute that. It's like when some program bluescreens windows and people make excuses for it. "Well the program did such and such"... fuck you!

Know what I like about you, Martin? We can never tell what you're really thinking. You bear the inscrutability of the Orient, the stolid face of The Gambler. Very few will ever discern your true feelings from the subtle hints you leave behind.

Re:Human forking

[miro f]

> Go ahead and start modding me down now

Okay.

well you just stuffed that one up...

Re:ESR is Childish and Unprofessional

[Bazman]

His travel rules might explain why his list of speaking engagements seems to start and stop at 2004.

Re:Oh gawd no

[TheRaven64]

Odd that after telling everyone to ditch the GPL in favour of the BSDL back in 2005, he's still using Linux. Mind you, as a BSD users, I'd appreciate it if you guys would hang on to him.

Re:Proprietary formats?

[crabpeople]

"I believe the DVD player was a plug-in for Xine and cost $4.95."

Cool! Got a torrent?

Re:Fedora Responds

[ozmanjusri]

Not sure what you are doing

Using a Windows computer?

Just a guess...

Disappointed

[Bruce Perens]

LWN ran this a day or two ago, and their headline was ESR's Farewell Letter. I had such great expectations for a moment, until I read the article :-)

Re:Fedora Responds

[thephotoman]

This is almost like Paris Hilton switching from Slackware to Gentoo and Slashdot covering it as a major story.

Well, actually, that would be kinda cool, seeing as Miss Hilton is the epitome of mainstream. The only thing that would make it even cooler is if she managed to pull off a Gentoo stage 1 install (I know, this isn't recommended anymore) without any help, and then saying that it was easier to do than setting up her old Windows computer. Just think of the positive mindshare that not only the Gentoo project, but desktop Linux and free and open source software would get if such a thing happened.

ESR, on the other hand, isn't that newsworthy anymore, even if I have to agree with him on the state of RPM, which has had major problems for years now (longer than I've been using Linux) that haven't been fixed.

Re:Fedora Responds

[Anonymous Coward]

No.

If I was, it would be "Bandwidth is sheep".

Re:Fedora Responds

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not really the main problem though. The problem is when another app depends on an older version library that would be updated when you install your app. So you end up having to go looking for an updated version of that app which can use the new version. But that app then has to have other libraries updated also. But other apps require the old versions. And then another app depends on a previous version of another library that's going to be installed and that one requires a version different to the first library that you chased down. But then the other app doesn't work with that version. And then... oh fuck it... I won't upgrade then!!!!

Re: Ubuntu Logo?

[HerbieStone]

You should have noted, that the link isn't work-save.

Now I have to clear my browser cache and hack into our corportate internet usage survailance system... again.

maybe it's time for a Linux distro

[alizard]

to adopt a goat.cx-based logo. Assuming legal issues can be worked out, of course.