For many years the linux distro concept has been about
"inclusion of applications" sometimes at the detriment to
co-habitating applications and the stability of the core OS. Much
discussion has been made over the years about JEOS, embedded Linux,
custom distros, applicance building, etc, but not a lot of discussion
about how applications could be delivered such that they were more
readily able to co-habitate. In a related note, open source
applications (because distros are so "inclusive") are put through
significant scrutiny around their design and deployment related to
their integration with the core OS that may or may not make sense. The
scrutiny is certainly more intense than proprietary software is
required to undergo.
We are proposing a panel discussion around a solution called "Software
Collections." Software Collections have been adopted by Red Hat and
are under consideration by other distros as a solution to the
application delivery problem. Questions include, is this a good
solution? Can multiple distros adopt one solution (or are there
inherent differences)? Can multiple distros, potentially, even
leverage the same package for an application?