this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2024
166 points (95.1% liked)

Linux

47151 readers
1406 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I'm curious how software can be created and evolve over time. I'm afraid that at some point, we'll realize there are issues with the software we're using that can only be remedied by massive changes or a complete rewrite.

Are there any instances of this happening? Where something is designed with a flaw that doesn't get realized until much later, necessitating scrapping the whole thing and starting from scratch?

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Basically, install Linux on your daily driver, and hide your keyboard for a month. You'll discover just what needs quality of life revising

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Can I keep a gate too and join the community?

Anti Commercial-AI license

[–] [email protected] 39 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Linux does this all the time.

ALSA -> Pulse -> Pipewire

Xorg -> Wayland

GNOME 2 -> GNOME 3

Every window manager, compositor, and DE

GIMP 2 -> GIMP 3

SysV init -> SystemD

OpenSSL -> BoringSSL

Twenty different kinds of package manager

Many shifts in popular software

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Aren't different kinds of package managers required due to the different stability requirements of a distro?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

BoringSSL is not a drop-in replacement for openssl though:

BoringSSL is a fork of OpenSSL that is designed to meet Google's needs.

Although BoringSSL is an open source project, it is not intended for general use, as OpenSSL is. We don't recommend that third parties depend upon it. Doing so is likely to be frustrating because there are no guarantees of API or ABI stability.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Not too relevant for desktop users but NFS.

No way people are actually setting it up with Kerberos Auth

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

100% this

We need a networked file system with real authentication and network encryption that's trivial to set up and that is performant and that preserves unix-ness of the filesystem, meaning nothing weird like smb, so you can just use it as you would a local filesystem.

The OpenSSH of network filesystems basically.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Performance of those is atrocious.

load more comments
view more: next ›