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Some call Linux an operating system, but is it really? Linux is really the underlying behind the scenes architecture that makes many Linux distributions work. Linux besides being open source is different to Apple and Microsoft because there are so many different version or flavors that are distributed. Anyone could make there own flavor of Linux, but is this necessarily a good thing?

Having many different distributions are great because there is a Linux for everyone. Having so many different distributions though is exactly what is hindering brining Linux to the desktop and everyday users.

Linux is great because anyone and everyone can contribute to it; but at the moment everyone is divided. The first big division is Between Gnome and KDE, but once we dive deeper into that each individual distribution that is spun off of one another is fracturing the community aspect. Imagine if instead of lots of small groups of people developing code for many individual distributions, what could happen if everyone all worked together on one distribution?

The biggest problem which comes up with the the distribution war isn't for the distributions themselves but for the software being developed for Linux users. When a new piece of software is developed for Linux it is usually first available via its source code. You can compile a program by source code on any distribution of Linux, but this can be long and hard.

Each distribution to help make installing applications easier has there own packaging standards. When you want to download and install an application these days for Linux you are presented with everything from rpms, to .debs etc. The p[problem is each distribution has there own way for installing the same software. The software developers should be concentrating on further building their application and not on packaging it for every distribution.

The Linux community needs to get together and create a standard for packaging software for distribution. This would make things easier for the developers and the users at home. Linux needs more unity. If Linux pulls together, and focuses on one or two main distributions, one KDE one Gnome without all the other distributions then Linux will become a real Operating System. Right now its a mere category of operating systems such as Fedora, Ubuntu, and Red hat.

Mark Shuttelworth over at Ubuntu is already starting to try and gain some unity by trying to coordinate major release cycles of Ubuntu with major software producers.

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