this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2024

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Are there any things in Linux that need to be started over from scratch? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 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 8 months ago (1 children)

The gatekeeping community

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Can I keep a gate too and join the community?

Anti Commercial-AI license

[–] [email protected] 39 points 8 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 8 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 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 8 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 8 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 8 months ago (1 children)

So sshfs or sftp?

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

Performance of those is atrocious.

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