Blog article in the podcast discussion

The recent guest post Divergence in the distros surely made a big impact in the Linux world.

It almost set a record between this blog's articles for the number of shares, likes and retweets.

And now it became the discussion topic for the Everyday Linux podcast. Seth, Chris, Aaron and Mark share their thoughts about 2- or 3-tier Linux world.

Interested? Welcome to read listen!

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What would be my own ideal Linux distribution?

There was a question addressed to me recently, after publishing the "Divergence in the distros" article. The person asked me

You tested many distros so you maybe have some pros/cons seen on distros to share.

That made me think about the most perfect distribution I'd like to get, ever. Let me share these thoughts with you.

Anne Nicolas: Mageia project is a viable and mature

"This is a good time for the next interview", DarkDuck thought. And there was a good reason for it.

DarkDuck's favourite distribution Mageia has just jumped into the version 3.

Let's cut this story short. My today's guest is Anne Nicolas, the chairperson of Mageia.org association.

Divergence in the distros: how the Linux community is splitting into a two-tier system

Multiple revenue streams aren't a bad thing.

Look at any major service provider: Heroku, Google, Amazon, Apple. All of them offer different levels of access to what they offer, usually at different prices. There's even an established route to enticing customers towards the paid plans, via the well-worn 'freemium' model.

Let's be clear about this: Linux isn't dividing into paid and unpaid. It's not going the freemium route (although the cynical will suggest that Canonical might be thinking about it). What we're seeing, though, is the development of a clear split. A kind of meiosis.

• Debian 7, Fedora, and openSUSE are one head of the hydra;
• Mint, Zorin, and Ubuntu the other.

And, much like the mythical beast itself, these heads enable the Linux beast to tackle both the herculean developer community while snapping up computer-averse consumers at the same time. If Linus Torvalds ran the Linux Foundation for-profit, this would be exactly the kind of business move that'd make sense: a two-tier system of Linux distributions, with one aimed at various levels of consumer and the other squarely aimed at the million unpaid developers who'll push the company forward.

Smart.

Tell people you use Linux

What is the most obvious way to tell other people you use Linux. Talk to them!

But what if there are too many people, and you can’t talk to [all of] them really… But still want to get the message "I am a Linux user" delivered? In this case, put this message on something visible. Computer sticker, mug, pen – the options are there. And, of course, with this summer season asking us to change clothes to something light, T-shirt is a nice way to promote your favourite operating system too!

Linux notes from DarkDuck helps you here. Links below lead to merchandise stores of different Linux distributions. Purchasing (and using) items from these stores, you not only promote Linux and tell other people you're a Linux man (or woman), but also help your favourite distribution: part of your purchase goes to the developers and helps them to continue their valuable work.

• Mageia
• Zorin
• Linux Mint
• Ubuntu
• Debian
• ...

Of course, I have not listed all the available distributions there, just a selected few.

Also, there are items available on Amazon. Here are the links to Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk – depending on where you live. Clicking through these links and buying anything there, you help this blog.

Debian Wheezy vs Intel 4965AGN: flop-flop

Installing Debian may be a trivial task for someone.

It has never been so easy for me.

To start with, my first attempt to install it failed epically. Installation of Debian 6.0 Squeeze without a network connection was a serious mistake.

Has installation improved in Debian 7.0? It was my task to study this.

What do I have now on a hardware side? Since my old laptop died and I got a new one, I wrote a new post about "Tux moving house". You can get technical specs of my new laptop Sony Vaio VGN-NR21Z there too.

I downloaded and burnt onto a DVD+RW drive the Live Xfce version of Debian 7.0 Wheezy. So, disk is in the drive. Reboot. Let's go!