Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: "Michał Górny" <mgorny@g.o>
To: gentoo-dev@l.g.o, Richard Yao <ryao@g.o>
Cc: "Anthony G. Basile" <blueness@g.o>, Patrick Lauer <patrick@g.o>, Rich Freeman <rich0@g.o>
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] Changing order of default virtual/udev provider
Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2016 10:35:47
Message-Id: 6263293E-1AB9-4081-811D-1E5405BA24F3@gentoo.org
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-dev] Changing order of default virtual/udev provider by Richard Yao
1 Dnia 17 lutego 2016 05:00:27 CET, Richard Yao <ryao@g.o> napisał(a):
2 >On 02/08/2016 10:09 PM, Rich Freeman wrote:
3 >> On Mon, Feb 8, 2016 at 7:58 PM, Anthony G. Basile
4 ><blueness@g.o> wrote:
5 >>>
6 >>> what does in-house tool mean? i'm a gentoo developer but i also
7 >work
8 >>> on an upstream project (eudev) that 14 distros use.
9 >>>
10 >>> some of the criticism given here are my concerns as well and i've
11 >>> spoken with the various distros --- slack, parted magic, puppy.
12 >they
13 >>> get what's going on and they still see eudev is the best way forward
14 >>> for now. it may not be in the future, but neither will a udev
15 >>> extracted from a compiled full systemd codebase.
16 >>
17 >> How many of those 14 distros have more than 14 users?
18 >>
19 >> Look, I get it, some people don't like systemd. That's fine.
20 >> However, you have to realize at this point that a non-systemd
21 >> configuration is anything but mainstream. There will always be a
22 >> "poppyseed linux" whose purpose in life seems to be to preserve linux
23 >> without sysfs or some other obscure practice. I just think that
24 >> Gentoo should offer the choice to do those things, but have a more
25 >> mainstream set of defaults.
26 >
27 >The new mainstream is docker. Docker recently switched to Alpine Linux,
28 >which uses OpenRC+eudev:
29 >
30 >https://www.brianchristner.io/docker-is-moving-to-alpine-linux/
31 >
32 >That dwarfs whatever marketshare systemd has in the same way that
33 >Android+iOS dwarfed whatever marketshare Windows has.
34 >
35 >If userbase is what matters to you, then OpenRC+eudev won. It is the
36 >logical choice for those concerned about userbase because that is what
37 >the Linux ecosystem will be using going forward.
38 >
39 >I do not think userbase should be the sole means by which we make
40 >decisions, but those that think otherwise should now join the
41 >eudev+OpenRC camp. It has the bigger userbase share going forward.
42 >
43 >To put it another way, the war is over. Welcome abroad. :)
44
45 Oh, the new thing every cool kid users these days. I have only one question in return: for how long?
46
47 Today Alpine uses eudev. But people change, distributions change. One year from now, it may be using systemd.
48
49 Today docker uses Alpine. Tomorrow it may use something else. Or even require systemd by design.
50
51 Today docker is the cool thing. One year from now, nobody may remember about it. Didn't things like this happen before?
52
53 Now, let's extend this to a perspective of few years. What is more likely to be extinct: userbase of eudev or systemd?
54
55 >
56 >>>
57 >>> it needs to be in the new stage4s to make a bootable system. imo a
58 >>> stage4 should be bootable modulo a kernel.
59 >>>
60 >>
61 >> Sure, a stage4 based on systemd makes a lot of sense. I don't really
62 >> see the point in leaving a kernel out though - I'd even stick a
63 >> precompiled one in /boot on top of having the sources installed. Why
64 >> not make a stage4 install something that takes all of 5 minutes?
65 >>
66 >> I think that offering an eudev-based distro as a default just doesn't
67 >> make sense in 2016. I just think the better road to take is to start
68 >> treating virtual/udev as something that gets installed post-stage3.
69 >> We can't even get people to agree on vi vs emacs as a default.
70 >
71 >We can leave virtual/udev out of stage3, but that doesn't diminish the
72 >need to select sensible default for the virtual/udev provider.
73
74
75 --
76 Best regards,
77 Michał Górny (by phone)

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