Re: [SLUG] RH 8.0, 7.3, 7.2 - Just newer versions of components or are these vastly different animals?

From: SpamFree (SpamFree@tampabay.rr.com)
Date: Tue Mar 04 2003 - 11:24:59 EST


On Tuesday March 04 2003 10:32 am, you wrote:
> Context: Differences between 98, NT, Win2K and XP seem fundamental -
> different core OS, some file locations are different, Active Dir/No AD,
> even different gui for some reason - these products don't seem to be
> refinements of the previous product. I don't know many details (We're NT
> shop) but it seems that some of the core design ideas are different.
>
> When, say, RH (or anyone else really) issues a new Linux release, make
> my day and tell me that they don't fundamentally change the product
> framework like MS. I assume that the new version is fundamentally
> unchanged and is a suite of newer/improved versions of existing
> components as well as a different mix of "extra software". I feel sure
> that this must be the case but I'd sure like to get confirmation from a
> person more knowledgeable than I.
>
> Thanks

Yes and no. For the most part, the major Linux distributions do remain fairly
stable. Keep in mind that these distributions have a much faster release
cycle than Microsoft does. Red Hat releases a new version every six to eight
months and for the most part these new releases feature improved versions of
the previous software including bug fixes, additional features and so forth.
File locations usually remain the same and there is no drastic change to the
core operating system.

However, there are times when things change significantly. Remember that
software is constantly under development and the developers are always trying
to improve the software and expand its feature set. This means that from time
to time certain packages undergo complete re-writes and can change
significantly. Sometimes these changes can result in significant changes to
the core OS.

As far as file locations, these usually remain constant. However, remember
that different distributions may use different file locations. Red Hat and
SuSE, for example use different locations for some packages. This can be
confusing and frustrating to some people when they switch distributions. But,
if you stay with the same "brand" file locations usually don't change.

The Linux kernel is always under development and sometimes changes
significantly when new versions are released. For instance the 2.2.x kernel
is significantly different from the current 2.4.x kernel and the upcoming
2.6.x kernel is expected to be quite different as well. Another example is in
the desktop environments. KDE changed from version 2.2 to 3.0 with
significant differences. Some of these caused binary compatibility issues
with older software. They are committed to keeping the entire 3.x series
binary compatible and it appears, right now that 4.x will also be binary
compatible with 3.x but, this could change.

Also, you may have heard about Red Hat's recent change to the default GUI
interface. The new BlueCurve interface (Released with Red Hat 8.0) is
significantly different from the appearance of their previous default
desktops.

So, yes. Things do change over time. That's progress. However, I would have to
describe the overall development of Linux distributions to be far more stable
than the shifts that you describe in past MS operating systems.



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 16:30:02 EDT