That depends how this distro handles the commercial part. Suse is definitely in it for the money more than anybody else.
You won't find any Suse rpm's on rpmfind and they make it as hard as possible to upgrade over the net.
But there are always a lot of alternatives out there.

The only direct consequence I can see is that distributions will become more standardised. It is a good thing, as this is a barrier to individuals and companies alike adopting Linux (that's why they go with the largest distributor redhat).
The actual barriers to market entry are small though, as anyone (even individuals) in the LFS corner can start rolling out a distro if there's widespread discontent with what will be the big two (redhat and ?<insert catchy distro name>?).
Source code allows them to do this and is why the GPL's implications are far reaching for anyone pulling the linux kernel down from the Internet.

If you want to see the consequences of market fragmentation, if you play lots of games on linux, look at how many media interfaces are needed for various games, all doing the same thing!

Standardisation is a good thing in the context of the GPL.

My 10 pence worth.

Bert

i waited to reply to this until the actual announcement so i could get a better view on what this actually means instead of starting to speculate based on rumors.

the site of this project is: unitedlinux.com

i think this is a great project. in no way will the common user suffer from this, and it will benefit Linux in the enterprise environments thus making Linux more popular with companies.

if u still have any doubts i recommend checking out this presentation (pdf format) at http://unitedlinux.com/en/press/ul_presentation.pdf

also, unitedlinux isn't just restriced to Suse, caldera, conectiva and turbolinux. future partners can join the project whenever they want which is also a good thing imo.

Looking at that presentation, the technical steering committee detailed there could be big and confused.

At the moment unitedlinux is just a name but once you get them round a table will they resolve differences responsively enough? In 30 different languages? (for example)

Bert

only time will tell

But isn't cool to have all different flavours of Linux with all progs compatible. They shoul all keep their individuality.
But problem lies in market share, more than "make it more friendly to users". RedHat is too good (powerful) for them so they are trying to win some of it back.

They try to get a bigger share or the corporate market. That's where the money is. Judging by that statement the whole thing won't go anywhere anyway. Sounds like everybody does everything everywhere - just buy some serversoftware with payed support; we figure the details out whenever we get where we are going - but that we don't know yet. Nobody will spend the big bucks for confused stuff like that.

They will get Mandrake in to it, they need the money. This could give the push to actually come out with something that will have widespread acceptance, and thus really offer joe consumer something that doesn't scare him. I believe that this is going to cause bill more sleepless nights than Red Hat. Bill is not an idiot, he knows that linux has more potential than win. They have been pushing the US defense dept. to do away with their funding for a secure distro from the National Security Agency. They have even complained that in doing this , the gov is funding the competition, and that is unfair.

I love the choice between distros. And I really love my Slack. But I am all for a standardized Linux distro. I was just having a conversation with my friend about this the other day. I think this will be good for the Linux community, more development, and the single distro will have the best of all + it will develop better more quickly. More programs and support as well. The only thing that worries me is that it will be much easier for companies to make money off linux

true they will easily make money, but on the other hand they won't be able make it commercial which they are slowly all trying to.

Uhh. FWIW, here's me anagramming the Ca(ldera) Co(nnectiva) Su(SE) Tu(rbolinux) connection as an acronym, read as paper headlines, then /me fuzzing that. Maybe this constitutes thinking after a bottle of fine wine (and some irish coffees) :-]

A VACCINE'S CUTOUT
Competition is good. I'ts a vaccine: what doesn't kill 'em makes 'em stronger. RH will perform better with stronger competition being forced to deliver more value for money. The cooperating distro's have a better chance of survival by unifying development, distribution and by sharing knowledge and solutions adapted to their markets.

CUTS CUE VACATION
Cooperation ain't easy since they're all big in their own markets. This could lead to a unonproductive and superficial unity which won't serve customers at all (protecting their own assets) and will only cost them market share. In the current state of the market this could lead to a quick devaluation of one or more companies, and eventually cuts. Aw well, if one vendor vacates it's place in the ranks it's place *will* be filled soon by another distro. Business as usual.

A CAT'S VOICE, UNCUT
Even tho all distro's have their own forte's, combining each distro's best parts will take considerable effort. Untill they polish it up they won't gain market share and even worse, when played backwards, this first beta release *may* sound like Britney Spears, or a cat's voice, uncut. Whichever's worse to you :-]


./unSpawn --with-max-proof=40% --bogosity-level=90 --bogoid-switches=wordsmith.org/anagram/ :-]

boo all the linux distros i don't like combined into one boo

all the companies involved will still offer their regular distro's just like they do now. they will however release a new distro aimed at enterprises and those distro's will be "powered by UnitedLinux".

so nothing will change for the regular user, except for maybe more support for applications which wo don't have on Linux yet

i think if there are should be more linux distribution. it will help new projects in linux and help linux community to grow faster

I have a quote from the presentation:

"Benefits to Linux Vendors
• Lower development costs
• Centralized development
• Lower certification costs
• Vendors are no longer required to certify individual distributions
• Faster time to market
• By sharing development resources, companies can provide a
much better product in a much shorter time"

The problem I read is in the third line. I always thought of linux as a de-centralized OS. This is why it upgrades so fast (from kernel to kernel and so on) and why it is so versatile. Anyone who is willing to invest a bit of time, can learn and adapt Linux to their likings. With this, it seems to be almost pushing towards a Winbloze idea.

I understand that several people work on the kernel, and in turn pass their work to someone higher, and then finally Linus has the final say in what goes into the kernel, but this is at least still everyone working together to form a better product. Not a few people working to better a product in a way that THEY feel needs improving. If Johnny Utah wants to improve the kernel for something he wishes to, HE CAN. If Carl China wants to, HE CAN TOO. It's no "centralized" workmanship.

On the other hand...

I did read what Brion was talking about, how they will offer 2 different releases of their distro, one will be marked "powered by UnitedLinux" and one will not. This will allow the business/newbie user to have an easier change over to linux.



But what will they NOT offer is what seems to bother me. What will I/WE/YOU not be able to "improve" upon? Unless WE too "upgrade" our packages!