Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 25th May 2012 14:55 UTC
James Hague: "But all the little bits of complexity, all those cases where indecision caused one option that probably wasn't even needed in the first place to be replaced by two options, all those bad choices that were never remedied for fear of someone somewhere having to change a line of code... They slowly accreted until it all got out of control, and we got comfortable with systems that were impossible to understand." Counterpoint by John Cook: "Some of the growth in complexity is understandable. It's a lot easier to maintain an orthogonal design when your software isn't being used. Software that gets used becomes less orthogonal and develops diagonal shortcuts." If there's ever been a system in dire need of a complete redesign, it's UNIX and its derivatives. A mess doesn't even begin to describe it (for those already frantically reaching for the comment button, note that this applies to other systems as well).
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RE[3]: Comment by kurkosdr
by tidux on Tue 29th May 2012 03:51
in reply to "RE[2]: Comment by kurkosdr"
Member since:2011-08-13
Um... you don't have to put all the home directories on one disk. Nobody said you absolutely have to assign $HOME values within /home, although it is easiest.
http://sprunge.us/BUCV
That's the output of "df -h" on sdf.org, a NetBSD shell provider I use. My home directory isn't in /home at all, but in /arpa/tz.
RE[3]: Comment by kurkosdr
by Doc Pain on Tue 29th May 2012 04:52
in reply to "RE[2]: Comment by kurkosdr"
Member since:2006-10-08
I shouldn't have to have to store all /home/ directories on one disk for example.
You don't have to. Home directories can be spread across many disks, they can even be placed on "no (local) disk" (see NFS home).
A bigger problem for me is the standard linux directory hierarchy. I prefer an application centric hierarchy rather than one where everything is dumped together in the big /usr/bin soup pot.
True, there are options to do it differently. For example, PC-BSD utilizes a concept as what you are suggesting. Still this may have disadvantages, e. g. doubled and tripled libraries. But as hard disk space is cheap, nobody sees a problem in this.
However, the traditional layout has advantages and intended baheviour, even if it's hard to see this on modern Linux where, as you said, things tend to be thrown into one pot.
Allow me to point you to the FreeBSD file system hierarchy documentation, "man 7 hier", for a more detailed description about what the different directories should be used for:
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=hier&sektion=7
In addition to them, some systems even use /opt (directory initially coming from Solaris, if I remember correctly) to manually manage software that is not handled by the system's software magement facilities, so avoiding problems with standard tools.
RE[4]: Comment by kurkosdr
by tidux on Tue 29th May 2012 10:50
in reply to "RE[3]: Comment by kurkosdr"
Member since:2011-08-13
RE[3]: Comment by kurkosdr
by Vanders on Tue 29th May 2012 10:38
in reply to "RE[2]: Comment by kurkosdr"
Member since:2005-07-06
For me, linux mounting is a nice abstraction, but sometimes I'm put off by the lack of overlays in the mainline kernel. I shouldn't have to have to store all /home/ directories on one disk for example. Overlooking several caveats, we can mimic overlays manually using symlinks, but linux's mount capabilities are occasionally inadequate.
Linux has supported bind mounts since kernel 2.4.0
Features
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The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.
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Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
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OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/11/13 21:41 UTC
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/29/13 21:06 UTC
Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/18/13 11:21 UTC
Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/16/13 9:29 UTC
The day has finally come: Google has started shipping Google Glass to the lucky few early adopters. Now that it's shipping, Google has also unveiled a lot more about the API and the specifications of the device itself. While the company had already given out substantial details at earlier occasions, there are still a few surprises here.More Features »
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Member since:
2011-01-28
tidux,
"Wow, you really don't understand the Unix filesystem."
I don't think that the OP's opinion demonstrates any lack of understanding. For some *nix filesystems can seem cumbersome and it's a valid opinion.
For me, linux mounting is a nice abstraction, but sometimes I'm put off by the lack of overlays in the mainline kernel. I shouldn't have to have to store all /home/ directories on one disk for example. Overlooking several caveats, we can mimic overlays manually using symlinks, but linux's mount capabilities are occasionally inadequate.
A bigger problem for me is the standard linux directory hierarchy. I prefer an application centric hierarchy rather than one where everything is dumped together in the big /usr/bin soup pot.