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Is Modern Linux Becoming Too Complex?
An anonymous reader writes: Debian developer John Goerzen asks whether Linux has become so complex that it has lost some of its defining characteristics. "I used to be able to say Linux was clean, logical, well put-together, and organized. I can’t really say this anymore. Users and groups are not really determinitive for permissions, now that we have things like polkit running around. (Yes, by the way, I am a member of plugdev.) Error messages are unhelpful (WHY was I not authorized?) and logs are nowhere to be found. Traditionally, one could twiddle who could mount devices via /etc/fstab lines and perhaps some sudo rules. Granted, you had to know where to look, but when you did, it was simple; only two pieces to fit together. I've even spent time figuring out where to look and STILL have no idea what to do."
I was reading through the article's comments and saw this thread of discussion. Well, it's hard to call it a thread of discussion because John apparently put an end to it right away. The first comment in that thread is totally right though. It is systemd and Gnome 3 that are causing so many of these problems with Linux today. I don't use Debian, but I do use another distro that switched to systemd, and it is in fact the problem here. My workstation doesn't work anywhere as well as it did a couple of years ago, before systemd got installed. So when somebody blames systemd for these kinds of problems, that person is totally correct. I don't get why John would censor the discussion like that. I also don't get why he'd label somebody who points out the real problem as being a 'troll'. John needs to admit that the real problem here is not the people who are against systemd. These people are actually the ones who are right, and who have the solution to John's problems! The comment I linked to says 'Systemd needs to be removed from Debian immediately.', and that's totally right. But I think we need to expand it to 'Systemd needs to be removed from all Linux distros immediately.' If we want Linux to be usable again, systemd does need to go. It's just as simple as that. Censoring any and all discussion of the real problem here, systemd, sure isn't going to get these problems resolved any quicker!
I think it's less the redundancy but rather the attempt to abstract away everything while at the same time including every kind of hardware and the stove into as few interfaces and scripts as you can get away with. There has to be ONE networking script, no matter whether the one actually used is wired, wireless or pigeon carrier based. And we have to include every single friggin' USB device ever built no matter whether 99% of them have at best a handful users and at worst a single user.
Linux is getting more and more similar to Windows, a huge abstraction layer crammed in between user and system in the vain attempt to make it "easy", and in this actually making everything overly complex.
Linux always had one defining strength over Windows: It is way more modular and its parts are way more easily separated and rejoined. And now various distributions try to nix this advantage by pouring their "version" into a monolithic block that "should be good for everyone". If they feel like diversifying, you'll maybe get a "server" and a "client" distri, with the main difference being that the server distri has no GUI.
Linux is getting overly convoluted, but only because we let it. Distributions are of course trying to take the easy way out, offering a system that will appeal to as many people as possible. Of course this lugs about a LOT of dead weight because what you need in your OS is useless to me and vv.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
>> it was simple; only two pieces to fit together
To me, the Linux experience has been based around the use of simple, command-line oriented tools that could be easily scripted together. That's the opposite of "only two pieces fit together" - just like Legos you have thousands of pieces that could fit together to make billions of different things.
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But now Linux seems to be getting closer to fog than clarity.
One example:
Last week I installed opensuse. When I tried to send an email using the mail command, Postfix was giving me odd permission errors for maildrop. So I went to look at the Postfix log, and there was none that I could find.
One step closer to the fog of Windows, where the system is hidden behind magical portals that only a few know how to access....
Simplicity needs to be the new goal in a FOSS OS project like Linux. 20 years ago it was all about getting an alternative to systems that cost north of 100 000$ up and running to be able to do the stuff we all wanted to do but couldn't afford to.
Today leading FOSS solutions and extremely powerful hardware is available in abundance, as are network and cyperpunk-working-coding-and-collaboration resources. It is now that we need to push for simplicity and perhaps even an own hardware standard.
To be honest, putting emphasis on FOSS hardware might even provide the right incentive for exactly that simplicity. Apple won all the Unixers over a decade ago, because it offered exactly that. Zero-fuss out-of-the-box FOSS-*nix functionality. It started losing them ever since the golden cage starting to close and lock. This is a gap the FOSS community needs to fill.
It is, in my opinion, high time for FOSS hardware to move into the limelight. We need to start crowdfunding our own NixBook Airs, flashy pro desktops and servers. ... The librem 15 is a step in the right direction - we need more of that.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca