Debian -- The Universal Operating System
http://www.debian.org/

Looks like there already is a Universal OS.

Yeah, it does look like a troll / Microsoft fanboy, and I agree with Tinkster for most of the thread. Diversity and choice are the strong points of Linux. If you want one of this and one of that then stick with Windows or go for a "mainstream" (ie: simple) distro like Mandriva or Linspire. People who holler that Linux will die don't understand the core of Linux and the people who follow it, it isn't about the technology for most of us, it is about the feeling that comes with having a completely open OS and open software. If you don't know what I am talking about, then you probably agree with
programmershous or other marketers.

Make that 4. Or more. Maybe make a poll: Who considers himself a crazy geek and uses Linux - vote!

GNU GPL states that if one uses GPL code to build his own apps, the resulting app must also be GPL. So code cannot be really stolen, only improved. If we talk about the FreeBSD licence, than that one is really free, and giants like Microsoft take advantage on it.

It's actually KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID!

I am 15 years old and I know C/C++ so far. I'm learning python, html, php, bash.

Dafinately!

No way!
What would you say about this:
"Teenager Develops User Friendly GNU/Linux OS"
(http://www.cxotoday.com/cxo/jsp/arti...903&cat_id=913)
This proves that Linux has a future (Don't misunderstand me. I also think that this teenager could be more useful to the Open Source community by participating in an existing project, rather than creating his own distro, but he also gets money this way.)

If you ask me, the only thing Linux needs more of is womanpower...

it sort of blows me away that people can sit around and ask
"what does linux need?" like this is just some movement
to derail microsoft. Of course i wouldnt mind seeing that happen.
Personally i got into linux cause windows 95 made me feel too
distant from whatever miniscule amount of verbosity i thought
MSDOS embodied, and that is still the number one thing i
appreciate about linux, the fact that is IS a walk in the park..
and not a hooked eyelid cinema and that every time i break
something i learn something and the fact that very few
developers in training work with linux sort of frightens me, i
wonder how much these people can really know about the
complicated layers of programming they are going to be
developing on .. i dont know a dang thing, personally

the thing is, i think, about distributions, is that they are easy
to put together and some lucky fool might get rich off of one

the thing about developers is: nobody wants to get ripped off
anymore, GNUs GPL pretty much ensures any talented developer
stupid enough to share his hard work with the world will be
appreciated only by this small group of "hackers" who open
the source files for whatever reason, personally i see the
OS development cycle as follows:
developer writes good app->developer gains recognition for
said app->developer hopefully lands badass job ->
the community waits paitiently for the next burst of inspiration

with all the hype about firefox .. .. well i havent looked yet
but the fact that i got a binary "firefox installer" and not
a set of source files really bothers me, and again when its
printgtking stupid trivial errors that even i could be debugging
...

ill say this too, the community is getting harder to find, newbies
clutter forums and mailing lists and hardcore developers
become more and more reclusive, there is new blood
somewhere, perhaps frustrated with code bloat..
ever cut all the drivers you dont need out of your kernel
source directorys? what about the #defs that dont apply
to your system? ive never finished but its amazing the
amount of code we are all expected to wade through in the
name of portability,
yea, i would like to see more people maintain code, perhaps
different kernels targeting x86 -OR- SPARC architectures and
a .config scriptui that will isolate your relavant source files

as far as standards go, the important ones already are
standards, ie: IDE, TCP, ipv4/6, HTML, etc.. the number of
features availiable within any of these standards is sort of mind
numbing as well, personally i cant believe this thing has gone
this far, and i think the people that brought it here are a little
more than human, definatly more talented than i, or perhaps
its becomming stale because they hit the same wall
blah i hope this isnt to old of a thread, i guess i had something
to say afterall

ps i found the sourcecode for firefox, i guess im pretty
preocupied as well, heh

I just have a few comments.

If you want all Linux Distros to be the same, go back to Windows.

I'll make a quick comparison for you. Like many people around the world, I like Ice cream. I think my personal favorite could possibly be butter pecan. However, if the powers-to-be suddenly decided that everyone had to eat the same flavor and that flavor was chocolate-mint...well we'd have a riot on our hands. I can't stand the taste of chocolate-mint.

I switched to Linux because it's what I want it to be and not what someone tells me it should be. One of the best things about Linux, in general, is the vast amount of choices we have. If I'm not happy with my current distro, I just pick a different flavor. It's not just simply the distros that I can choose, it's everything. I tried Emacs and didn't like it much and now I'm a hardcore VI user. I started out on newb friendly SuSE and thought it sucked but I'd still recommend SuSE to someone any day of the week. Why? you ask. Because it's a flavor of Ice Cream they might prefer...and in the end, it's Ice Cream and Ice Cream is Good!