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Frank Peters posted on Mon, 22 Sep 2014 14:41:14 -0400 as excerpted: |
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> Good design is highly flexible and configurable with little assumption |
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> made on the nature or needs of the user. |
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> |
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> Let's consider a simple program to display digital images. A good |
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> program design will not only contain built-in routines to accommodate |
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> the standard image formats but will also provide non-specific raster |
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> buffers to allow a user to view unconventional or even non-existent |
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> formats. A good program design will also make no assumptions about the |
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> nature of the image data but rather allow the user to create any needed |
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> specifications. A professional program thus allows both standard |
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> conventions but keeps the overall capability unrestricted and open |
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> ended. |
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> |
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> As best as I can understand (I am not an expert in systems programming) |
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> under Torvalds the Linux OS conforms to such professional design goals. |
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/The/ Linux OS? There is no such single entity. |
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There is /the/ Linux kernel. There are all sorts of OSs designed and |
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deployed for all sorts of different usage, using that kernel. Linus |
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controls the kernel, and had a hand in developing a few relatively |
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insignificant userspace bits that run on that kernel and some subset of |
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available userspace OS platforms, but he doesn't control userspace, and |
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AFAIK, has no interest in doing so. |
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By raw number of deployments out there "The Linux OS" would have to refer |
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to Android. But systemd isn't part of the Android Linux OS/platform, nor |
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does Android have much to do with the gentoo of the list on which this |
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discussion is taking place, so that doesn't make sense in the context of |
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this thread. |
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In the context of this thread, one might make an educated guess that what |
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you refer to as "The Linux OS" would be what is technically known as |
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GNU/Linux, the GNU libc and various development tools, etc, that run on |
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top of it and the Linux kernel, and on which most common Linux |
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distributions other than android, including gentoo, base themselves. |
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And while individual bits of that platform may have happened to conform |
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to your description in the past, there's no reason other bits included in |
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the most common implementations of that platform in the future have to |
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continue to do so. That's fine, however, as it's all FLOSS, and devs and |
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users are free to develop and use what works for them best, forking off |
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of the most common solution where they find it worth their while to do |
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so. If /enough/ people do so, then the most common solution will switch |
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to a different one as a result. |
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Which at a slightly different level is what we've already seen happen |
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with Android. Enough people found it useful that it's now the most |
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common, rather more so than GNU/Linux. But the same GNU/Linux ecosystem |
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and its many variants that was around before, still continues to exist, |
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as enough people with the skills to continue to continue development, |
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continue to find it useful enough to do just that, continue development. |
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Which is exactly the situation non-systemd GNU/Linux looks to be headed |
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for as well. The systemd variant appears to be fast becoming the most |
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common, but at least at this point, there's enough interest in the |
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continued existence and development of non-systemd variants, that they |
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continue to exist and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, |
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as well. |
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|
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-- |
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Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. |
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"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- |
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and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman |