The Perfect Linux Distribution (Page 2 of 2)

Here is one of the most important challenges: the updates. During the lifetime of the distribution there will be many bugs, performance issues, security holes and new releases. How will these be presented to the user? What about the overall design of the system; will updates have the potential to break an already solid system? Again, these questions must be addressed when designing a Linux distribution.

A Linux distribution who's focus is providing a secure production server will not make use of a desktop environment as it creates too many security concerns. This is not the case with other distributions so you will have to decide what desktop environment to include in your Linux distribution. Will you go with one of the big names, Gnome or KDE and take advantage of the updates released by their developers? Perhaps you will pay more attention to the speed of the OS over aesthetics and offer XFCE, Fluxbox, or another lightweight desktop environment. Will you decide to take one of these desktop environments and customize it to distinguish your Linux distribution? If so, what issues will this cause with updates & ease-of-use? During the development process these questions will have to be answered and the scope of your Linux distribution narrowed further to address the needs of your specific users.

Reaching the goal of a perfect Linux distribution is a nearly impossible task. Programming and application choices aside, one distribution may not be a perfect server or a perfect server may not be a perfect audio & video managing system. As we also discussed, building a Linux distribution is not about bringing some files and folders together and making it available for download. It involves careful selection of applications, careful planning with the updates and release cycles as well as many other issues that will arise during the planning and coding phases.

In the next installment of this series we will discuss the perfect Linux application.