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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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PSA: Not all applications use environment variables (Like they are supposed to) (lemm.ee)

submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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This is mainly a rant post.

I have to use Zscaler on my work PC. I use Sway (Moved from Gnome -> i3 -> sway).

Whenever Zscaler is launched, I used to get a weird error "proxy server not found" but it continued to work otherwise. Now at my company, we used a proxy at one time but we shifted to a no-proxy connection recently.

So I checked all my environment variables, output of set command. Everything was fine. People said it could be because of some weird compliance issue, or kernel etc etc. After a week or so, I gave up on debugging it because most of my work was fine with the 50% functional Zscaler.

One day, I opened Gnome instead of Sway to check something else, and saw that my proxy was on. This is the proxy set in Gnome Settings, not environment file.

I initially dismissed this finding because I thought Gnome is not active during sway so it should not affect it. But then i remembered it's possible to access the gnome settings using gsettings from any distro.

I switched to Sway, and sure enough, when I ran gsettings get org.gnome.system.proxy.http host, I could see the proxy IP. I set it to null and behold! Zscaler was working perfectly.

I'm like "Who the hell designs software like this? The application should read the environment variables, not Gnome variables!"

Anyway, this was just a reminder to software makers to kindly follow the norms. Don't design your software for one Distro. Follow the guidelines as mentioned in freedesktop.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Before any commenter rushes to condemn the Chaos That Is Linux, please check out OP's posting history to get a clearer picture of their credibility.

(and like they themselves stated, this is a rant and not a PSA)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

I don't think it's wrong to bitch about the standards fragmentation in linux. For better or worse, it's a serious issue within linux. Apple, for example has a closed ecosystem which is bad, but they have great ecosystem cohesion which is great for app development and reliable interaction between applications. IMO the cohesion to standards is one of the only good things iOS has going for it.