David Legard of InfoWorld.com reports on a recent keynote address at LinuxWorld 2000 in Singapore in which Red Hat Chairman Robert Young explained why he believes that Linux won't fragment. David Legard writes . . .

“Worries that the Linux operating system could fragment in the same way as Unix are unfounded, as there are no commercial incentives for companies to produce separate versions, according to Robert Young, chairman of Linux distributor Red Hat.”

“Instead, maintaining a single version of the OS is important for all the players in the industry as Linux moves towards mainstream acceptance, Young said in his keynote address Thursday at LinuxWorld 2000 here.”

“'In the Unix world, there was the ability to cause the OS to fork, and also the incentive,' he said. 'Companies would add a feature and tell the world their version was better. That caused other companies to bring out their own versions with additional features, fragmenting the OS.'”

“It is the open-source nature of Linux that turns this proposition on its head, Young said.”

* Read full story *

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.