DistributionWatch Review: Red Hat Linux 6.1 Red Hat Linux and RPM Kevin Reichard
Monday, December 6, 1999 01:33:09 PM
More than any other Linux distribution, Red Hat Linux relies on
quasi-proprietary technologies that are in theory open source but in reality
fairly unique to this specific Linux distribution. You've already seen that
with GNOME and Enlightenment, but perhaps the best example of this is RPM, the
Red Hat Package Manager. It's the main tool for installing new packages and
updating existing packages.
Red Hat extends RPM with GNOME-RPM, a GNOME application that acts as the
front end to the command line. Sure, this is technology that's available to the
rest of the Linux world. But in deciding to focus on GNOME as the desktop
environment and in using it as the basis of a graphical front end to RPM--instead
of creating a more generic X-based RPM front end that could have been
used by virtually every other Linux user, no matter what distribution is
installed--Red Hat essentially foisted a proprietary solution onto an
open-source world. (There is a KDE-based RPM tool buried among the KDE
packages.) This is perhaps the biggest complaint we have about Red Hat Linux;
within the product there are literally dozens of attempts to push
"open" solutions while controlling said solutions.
RPM is a good example of this. In and of itself, RPM is good
technology, but it's failed to catch on beyond the Red Hat universe. In the
past, Red Hat Software failed to promote RPM within the open ethos of the Linux
community, and as a result RPM hasn't been adopted by most other distributions.
As a result, we have a Babelesque situation regarding installation standards in
the Linux world; quite honestly, it's a pain in the butt for software vendors
to support multiple installation methods, and the support of the
software-development community is key to the future of Linux.
