[NMLUG] Why so many Linux distros?

[jfleck at inkstain.net (John Fleck)]

On 10/9/06, havoc <havoc@harrisdev.com> wrote:
>
> I don't understand the never ending fascination with the plug-in car.
> Why are so many people interested in shifting from the cost of gasoline
> to a much higher electric bill (due to efficiency losses in generation
> and distribution) ... unless there is the opportunity to steal the
> electricity from a neighbor or employer... I suppose.
>

There was testimony at a House Committee hearing last spring
suggesting that the cost per mile driven would be less - potentially
substantially less - with plug-in hybrids, both in the direct cost of
buying electricity versus gasoline and in the indirect cost of
greenhouse gas emission, even if you trade gasoline in your car for
coal at the electric power plant. That's consistent with what the
independent (i.e. not industry-funded) experts told me about the
technology when I did a story about it for the newspaper last spring.

The experts also had an easy answer for my smart-ass skeptical
question: "But won't you have to build a whole bunch of new power
plants?" They pointed out that the big base load plants, primarily
nuclear and coal, are turned down at night when demand is low. Night
is when you'd be charging up your car, they argue, so the generation
and distribution infrastructure is already sufficient. Other gasoline
alternatives - ethanol, synfuels, hydrogen - require significant
infrastructure investments on the energy supply side.

The experts I interviewed consistently pegged plug-in hybrids as the
most promising gasoline alternative in the pipeline right now.

The problem discussed at the House hearing, which plug-in hybrid
enthusiasts often don't acknowledge, is that the state of battery
technology isn't there yet, which is why we don't have them yet. But
Havoc's cost/efficiency argument is at odds with what the experts are
saying.

John

P.S. I agree there are too many Linux distributions. :-)