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Date: Wed, 29 Apr 98 20:05 PDT
From: bruce@pixar.com (Bruce Perens)
To: debian-devel@lists.debian.org
Subject: on forming a new Linux Distribution

Dear Debian Folks,

I've been giving serious thought for a while to forming a new Linux
distribution. My reason is to fulfill some goals that currently are
not addressed by Debian or the commercial distributions.

I've posted my first message on this topic to debian-devel, as I think
a lot of you have similar goals to the ones below, and those who do have
earned the right to be in on the project from the start. I don't currently
have a mailing list for this project - I guess I'll have to start one.

	Thanks

	Bruce Perens

1. Focus on the User

	I'd like to have developers who program because they like to see
	their work in the hands of users, especially _naive_ users.
	Competition with Microsoft and other proprietary systems is a
	stated goal of the project. Market share for the system and its
	derivatives is a stated goal of the project.

2. Maintaining a non-commercial alternative to the commercial Linux
   distributions.

	This was one of the most important goals of Debian.
	A non-commercial alternative helps keep the commercial distributions
	stay "honest" by preventing any of them from having a corner on the
	market.

	I think Debian's drifted too far from the mainstream of Linux
	to continue to fulfill this purpose. A non-commercial
	alternative would address the same markets as the commercial
	Linux systems, and would be compatible with them wherever
	possible. I propose for this system binary, _dependency_, and
	package compatibility with Red Hat, the most popular Linux
	distribution that has made it to LIBC 6. This would guarantee
	the availability of commercial applications for the system.
	Obviously, the easiest way to do that is to derive from Red Hat.

3. Provding shared maintainance on the base system for all Linux
   distributions.

	This is another early goal of Debian that we've not ever fulfilled.
	A system based on what commercial distributions are already deriving
	from, managed by a non-profit, with shared CVS, might be able to
	realize this goal.

4. Maintaining the Open Source standard of Linux.

	We're at the point where we don't really _need_ "non-free" and
	"contrib" directories any longer - all packages in the system
	should be Open Source - let someone else distribute the rest.

5. Open Development.
	I am proposing development visible to all, but not a free-for-all.
	A core group of limited size to maintain the base system and oversee
	the rest probably _is_ necessary. I am not planning to copy the Debian
	constitution - I'd rather have the Bazaar-Method management we used
	for the first few years of the project.

6. Direct Commercial Participation.
	I would encourage direct commercial participation by other Linux
	distributions who are interested in compatibility through a standard
	base system. I know most of these people, and can probably get serious
	consideration from them.

7. Policy Manual
	I think a good deal of the Debian policy manual would be usable
	for this project. It's a good document, and could be generalized to
	all Linux.

8. Marketing On An Equal Footing with Engineering
	Marketing is important for getting the user's attention and giving
	the user what they want. Lack of good marketing is the main reason
	for the failure of Unix derivitaves to achieve market domination.
	I would put the marketing team at the same level as engineering, and
	have them work together constantly.

9. A Random List of Other Goals.
	RPM as the package system - possibly with an APT port later on
	(is that what it's called now?). It's necessary to get the other
	distributions in on the project. We'd have to add a few missing
	features to RPM, but this would be pretty easy to do.

	COAS as a system management framework. Non-interactive install.

	Limited set of interpreters for system tasks and pre-install and
	post-install scripts. How about ANSI shell (_not_ necessarily Bourne
	shell), Python, and everything else is a compiled executable?
	I'm concerned that Perl is a rather messy language compared to
	Python, and both Red Hat and Caldera seem to be focusing on Python.

	No obscentity. Avoids legal problems and makes _me_ feel better.
	There is lots of room for free-speech distribution sites on the net.

	Pursuit of the 86open goals - an Open Source binary compatibility
	standard for operating systems, provided in source code form rather
	than as a paper document (at least at the start).


		Thanks

		Bruce Perens


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