I have been wondering...
What would happen if all of us, GNU & Linux users would unite as a Community? I mean, I understand that we, the FLOSS Community, are one already... but a real one?
I know this might sound a bit harsh but, I don't see much of a unity on IRC Channels nor Forums. We like to argue and rant about which is the best distro and what software rules over the other.
I understand we only express opinions when we say "KDE is better!", "GNOME rules!", "Viva Gentoo!" and stuff... We, usually, miss the words "I think that..."
I would like to see, not only a Community, but a Unified Community!
This movement has gotten so far; so much improvement has been made! All of these done, one and a thousand times, reinventing the wheel, which is one of the purposes of the Open Source Community... code reuse!
Can we really unify our groups? Can all the distros work towards the same goal?
What if the software; the development was made in favor of all distros? I know Red-hat/Fedora, as well as the communities around these, invest a lot in of time and resources on helping the individual apps be better by submitting patches, participating directly in the development and perfection of all the apps included in these distros.
I'd like to see more of this. I'd like to notice that Fedora's efforts work to benefit Ubuntu and Debian; that Gentoo's patches are made in a generic way so the rest of us benefit; that the Ubuntu forums are not so specific for this distro and more general...
I don't know what a more unified Community would be capable off.
I've dreamed of 5-10 major distros providing, as they are now, a base to make great jump starts.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if you had 5 major distros and, with the proper tools, be able to modify/re-edit them so I could provide this distro's "edition" and maintain compatibility with the base distro? Ubuntu and Fedora, that I know of, are working this way.
It would be great if all the resources and power invested in maintaining sooooo many distros would be invested in these 5-10 distros! We would advance even faster!
Independent distro maintainers! Please! Work towards standardizing! Reuse what is made! Join forces and we will prevail!