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摘自 http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20050829#1
大概批评观点如下:
1、网站上有大量的Flash和无效联接 - Asianux
2、夸大事实的广告言辞 - Asianux
3、无RPM和源代码储备 - Asianux
4、“固执地”(原文)模仿Windows - RedFlag
Asianux - is the hype justified?
Asianux The launch of Asianux 2.0 last week has attracted much attention in the Linux and computing media around the Internet. This is easy to understand - the idea of creating a common base and unified standards, with support for the complex writing systems of the countries of East Asia, Asianux certainly looks like a step in the right direction. The project has also been embraced by Oracle and some hardware manufacturers as one of the key Linux players, alongside Red Hat and Novell, to include in the testing and support infrastructure.
But is Asianux really what it claims to be - a pan-Asian panacea for high cost of proprietary software licenses and a universal solution for Asian computer users? As it stands now, we highly doubt it - for two reasons: lack of openness and non-participation of other important Linux players in Asia.
The lack of openness is most alarming. The Asianux web site is a haphazardly designed portal, with broken links, annoying Flash animation, badly formatted press releases, and plenty of self-praise for being an "extreme success" and for becoming "one of the three major Linux server distributions in the world". Similar unfounded statements litter the Asianux web site - while, at the same time, its Success Story page remains amazingly bare.
Despite a so-called "release" of Asianux 2.0 last week, the distribution is nowhere to be had. Its download page still links to Asianux 1.0 ISO images and no public beta testing process preceded the product launch. Similarly, there is no depository of RPM packages and no source code available for download. Even worse, with the exception of the self-glorifying and poorly formatted press release, the Asianux web site provides no information about the product's features. Bug reporting facilities and security notification infrastructure are also absent from the site.
Granted, Asianux is meant to serve as a base system upon which the three participating companies - Red Flag Software, Miracle Linux and Haansoft - build their own products. Yet, one cannot but feel disappointed about the secrecy with which the project presents its development work - instead of openly inviting Asian users, developers and companies to participate in the development process, all work on Asianux takes place behind closed doors. This not only goes against the spirit of Linux and Free Software, it is also against the interest of Asian Linux users.
Thus the only publicly available product based on Asianux 2.0 at this time is a beta release of Red Flag Linux 5.0, released last week. Downloadable from a single (i.e. extremely slow) FTP server, this is a desktop Linux distribution where Red Flag stubbornly continues in its effort to turn Linux into a Windows clone (see screenshot below). That's not to say that it is a bad product; perhaps somewhat outdated and without a good office suite, but nevertheless very usable, with solid support for simplified Chinese and other conveniences that make Red Flag Linux just about as usable as Microsoft Windows on the desktop - and that can't be a bad thing.
The beta release of Red Flag Linux 5.0 Desktop aside, the sad truth is that Asianux is not one of the three major Linux distributions in the world, not even close. In its current state, Asianux is little else than hype spread by the three commercial companies involved in the project. And unless the responsible parties fix their half-broken web site, open up the project for public participation, and invite other major Asian players to join in, Asianux is unlikely to become anything but overhyped and glorified vapourware, a fate so similar to the failed United Linux. |
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