>>Standards are still mostly work-in-progress, which is why each distribution has its own installation and configuration utilities.
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>Yes, but that is true for everything. Anything that is not work-in-progress is dead.
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>>How many Windows machines are configed exactly the same? Where I work we have Win95, Win98, Win NT, and some Win2000, all running various Netware clients, etc. etc. It is just as much of a pain as anything, and is even more frustrating, since one would think the MS flavors would behave at least _somewhat_ similarly. I think config issues are a problem everywhere, and it takes a well-thought-out plan to deliver standard solutions to every desktop in a company.
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>Very well put.

I second that. We've desparately tried to standardize our WinXX installs but MS keeps throwing out incompatible OS versions. Strange how the latest version seems to break 3rd party tools and apps, especially those in competition with MS office products. scheesh, even WinXX is incompatible with itself. Standardize on Word 97 and you won't be able to read Word 2000 docs. That's done on purpose. I run WP8 on my SuSE box, when I am not using StarOffice 5.2, and it reads EVERY WP doc file made.
In fact, when I was running Win95 I used to use Street Atlas to map my travels as I drove/flew around the country consulting. When I downloaded a Win95 patch, suposedly to fix a Win95 bug, about the only thing that happened was that I couldn't run Street Atlas any more. It is not that Street Atlas minded. They got the chance to sell an 'upgrade' because of it. I don't know how many SA users moved to MS version of that product but I have no doubt that was the intent of that patch.

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>>I think that Linux has a leg up because it is working on more standards every day, and every enhancement folks come up with are instantly available to anyone else. It is up to us to deliver a standard package to all users.

As someone once said, "standards are a good thing. That is why there are so many of them."
The big reason why Linux is remaining pretty much 'standardized' is that it can't go propriatary, the very trent that forked Unix and gave MS their OS opening. Even the two major desktop competitors, KDE and GNOME, can run side by side on the same box, and if you open a second X-window, at the same time! Also, many apps are delivered as static, not dynamic, so it doesn't matter if you have a particular library installed or not. And in the age of 30+ GB HD and 128MB RAM, dynamic preservation of memory and HD space is becoming a moot issue. This is one reason why amny MS app baloon out to hundres of MB. (Linux users often complain about 'bloat', but Linux apps are heading in the same direction, and only the old gurus care anymore.)