Ian Murdock rewrites history!

I can’t help but comment on Ian Murdock’s talks he has been giving since at Sun. His main premise seems to be that OpenSolaris is no different then Linux except for the kernel. I think he is playing fast and loose with the truth. I agree with the premise that Linux as most people refer to is the complete distro, ie GNU software, Firefox etc. The point where I strongly disagree is where he seems to claim that most people are not Linux people including himself but Open Source people. If this was cut and dry then the OpenSolaris kernel could be dropped in with the Gnome desktop and the new Project Indiana packaging system and the world could just as easily use OpenSolaris as they have used Linux. Well that is far from the truth. Just try for yourself and you will certainly see just how vastly different Linux and Opensolaris is. Ian seems to ignore the community around Linux (yes Linux not Opensource) that has enabled the seemless hardware support with the awesome work that continues to be done in the Linux driver space. So does anyone else seem to think that Ian is just slightly oversimplifying why Linux is so successfull and clearly the winner hands down when compared with Opensolaris.

No Ian, Linux is not just the distro that many people are sadly mistaken to have credited with more then it deserves. Linux is not “just” a kernel in that sense. Let’s give credit where credit is due. Without Linux, the distro as we know it would not exist. Please at least admit that Ian.