Re: Elisp addiction not as bad in light of Linux forkoholism

[Pascal J. Bourguignon]

Emanuel Berg <embe8573@student.uu.se> writes:

> init is, I think, a remnant of AT&T's UNIX System V.
> init has been around on Unix systems a long time,
> including Linux systems. init is functional but very
> heavy-handed and hackish in style - for example,
> running system userspace startup (and exit) processes
> - and in what order - relies on the file*names* of
> scripts!

You call it hackish, but I find it is an essential unixism.  Using the
file system as a database for unix administration data, keeping other
unix adminstration data in simple text file tables (instead of more
sophisticated, but also much more brittle databases (think for example,
the various versions of Sun NIS (Yellow Pages), NeXT/Apple NetInfo, and
now Directory Services (how long will it last!?)).

This is essential to keep unix administration data in simple text files,
and possibly in structured directories (ie. with file names encoding
things like order of loading or others), because this is what gives unix
its discoverability and ease of administration (and ease of writing
administrative tools).



On the other hand, I don't mind people developping non-unix systems,
using a unix kernel and adding layers, such as Android.  But that should
not trample upon a true unix system.

> So because of some child-diseases and other obstacles
> that were to be expected, there has been a constant
> ruckus and never-ending hullabaloo where many people -
> including those that should probably focus on their
> stuff - have expressed dislike in unpleasant ways.

I've not looked at systemd too closely, but AFAICS, the problem is not
child-diseases, but more that it's not enough unixy.  It's kind of like
launchd on MacOSX, and, while I must admit that launchd finally seems to
work satisfactorily, I wouldn't say that it plays nice from a unix point
of view.


> And now, classy old Debian has forked again!

Ubuntu forked from Debian and it's not a bad thing (arguably).

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                 http://www.informatimago.com/
“The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a
dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to
keep the man from touching the equipment.” -- Carl Bass CEO Autodesk