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Linux Kernel 4.4 LTS Officially Released
prisoninmate writes: January 10, 2016, will enter in the Linux history books as the day when the Linux kernel 4.4 LTS (Long-Term Support) has been officially released by Linus Torvalds and his team of hard working kernel developers. Prominent features of Linux kernel 4.4 LTS include 3D support in the virtual GPU driver, allowing for 3D hardware-accelerated graphics in virtualization guests, a leaner and faster loop device that supports Asynchronous I/O and Direct I/O, thus increasing the system's performance and saving memory, and support for Open-Channel Solid State Drives (SSDs) through LightNVM. Phoronix also took a look during the newest kernel's development cycle, and has an overview of 4.4's new features.
play crysis?
Be or ben't
b/c he would save any risky new stuff for one or two point releases down the road.
For a more complete changelog:
http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux...
I know you're joking, but if I ever have plenty of free time, I'll go here and spend some time figuring out how to boot systemd on the raw metal, making a true systemdOS. And I never joke. j/k. not.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Folks, it bothers me that even with all these features, Linux [still] doesn't matter on the desktop. Where are these features really having impact?
> systemd on the raw metal
That should be very fast since it doesn't support reliable logging.
As a person who just installed CentOS 7 for the first time the other day, I have to say that installation and configuration for my purposes takes much less time with CentOS 7 compared to Windows 7.
Add in all the spying shit you have to turn off (or attempt to turn off) in Windows 10, and it's clear that Linux is the option that will cost you less time.
And stderr!
Sadly, I don't think systemd is going away anytime soon. The biggest voice behind it (Red Hat) effectively controls the "GNU/Linux" world. The kernel is on a completely different level - it is the base that everything else (including systemd) builds around, and non-GNU Linux versions (like Android) will receive these features.
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
Only if you are using certain versions of one particular boot loader - which many of us never were using.
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
Time is money. So, if it doesn't save time, it isn't saving money.
Besides, Linux is meant to boot your machine and provide basic OS service---not save you time or money.
My suspicion is that it's the Slashdot editors, or somebody else affiliated with Slashdot who is responsible. It's quite common to see early comments modded down to -1, without any reason (Flamebait, Troll, Offtopic, etc.) listed. The comments are downmodded almost immediately after they're posted in some cases, too.
This is just speculation, but maybe the Slashdot editors are trying to steer the conversation in certain ways, and they are attempting to do this by downmodding perfectly good comments right away, instead of letting community members judge the comments?
Comments pointing out problems with systemd often get this treatment, especially when they're perfectly relevant comments, like the GP's comment is.
I really hope that it isn't anyone affiliated with Slashdot who is responsible for the abusive and incorrect -1 moderations. If it is, that would be a really despicable thing for them to be doing. It would be far worse than the overt censorship at Hacker News, or the modding-to-make-up-for-having-a-micropenis that we see at Reddit, or the smartass holier-than-thou censorship at Stack Overflow.
What Slashdot should do is list who moderated each comment, and how they moderated it. I'd like to think they'd be honest, so that if it's somebody affiliated with Slashdot doing the downmodding that this is made clear. If somebody is deemed responsible enough to moderate comments, then they should be willing to have their username publicly associated with whatever moderation they give.
No one uses stderr any longer. It's good to get rid of useless cruft.
Dropping a lot of syslog messages isn't a huge problem since important things are usually logged more than once so you might not miss it.
But seriously when was the last time you looked at a log? I'm glad they're being de emphasized by design.
Dropping a lot of syslog messages isn't a huge problem since important things are usually logged more than once so you might not miss it.
With that attitude, you sound like a Windows user.
I look at log files almost daily, especially when something goes wrong.
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
... how exactly does someone run the latest and greated Linux kernel? My trusty Ubuntu 14.04 shows kernel 3.16. Some work I'm doing in Yocto on a Freescale ARM board shows something like 3.19 for the kernel version. Is there some mysterious bleeding edge distro to be had somewhere that is always up to date on everything, or at least the kernel? Or do I roll my own, install on Ubuntu 14.04 (for example) and hope it all works? Enquiring minds want to know!
Look at the subject for fuck sake, anybody with any clue about this knows that this has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with systemd. What do you expect the kernel developers are supposed to do about systemd? Do you understand what systemd is? Obviously not. Do you understand what Linux is? Again obviously not. Part of the reason the genuine criticism of systemd was ignored is because it was drowned out by nitwits like you who don't have a clue what you're talking about and just want so desperately to feel important that you just inject yourself into a chinese-whispers echo chamber. Asking the kernel developers if they have done "fixed the systemd problem" is completely nonsensical.
Additionally Microsoft releases fucked versions of Windows every 5 minutes and despite that and the ease of which it is to install desktop Linux distros (both long before and after systemd) the vast majority of people still rather use Windows than dektop Linux distros. Microsoft doesnt have anything to fear from desktop Linux, the next Windows version could require the user to communicate in binary by banging 2 rocks together while Nadella climbs in your ass with a camera to make sure your TPM chip is working correctly and people would *still* rather use that than desktop Linux.
you can't fix everything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Yes the only way to escape the systemd Insert is to use an older but still supported long term distro or find some that have moved away from systemd.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Like doing the work of actually supporting the alternatives yourself. I have a regular day job. I spend nights and weekends packaging software for a popular GNU/Linux distribution. I'm not alone. I have better things to do than to make sure that everything works with every possible combination of systemd or non-systemd just because a few people have something against it. If you think it's so important to not use systemd then you better step up and do the work yourself.
That's why systemd starts logging much earlier than syslog, so that you can even get logs from the boot process.
Nice troll.
But seriously, dropping a lot of syslog messages and stderr makes troubleshooting very difficult.
Get Tumbleweed. It's a rolling release -- it stays up to date with a reasonable week or two lag (to allow for stability testing). Currently runs kernel 4.3.3, suspect it will go to 4.4 in a few weeks. Been using it a while now and really enjoy it.
4.4 is the first release of the Linux kernel which supports enough to run it without any changes on Cavium's ThunderX. I have been running it since rc4 came out and even helped fix a bug in the locks.
Or I could just do what a ton of former linux users have already done - switch to FreeBSD or OpenBSD.
I can't do anything to shut off the flow of shit raining down on linux users from poettering, but I can damn sure ditch linux and run away from the splash zone.
De stop users don't need logs. That is why tossing them is a good idea.
You CAN use a bleeding-edge distro but you don't need to if you just want a new kernel. Unlike Windows, you can use a new kernel with an older userland or vice-versa. You can update the kernel without updating the "operating system". (Modulo fucking systemd.)
Your bootloader will let you choose the kernel when you boot, and you can set it to fallback to a known-good kernel, so there is little to no risk in trying different ones. I tend to keep the last three kernels I used, just because there is no reason not to. /boot should be 200MB+ these days anyway.
There are a lot of tutorials about compiling kernels, but one point you'll want to know is that you can (and should) start with your old kernel config as a base. (There are many options you can configure in the kernel). The new kernel will probably work fine with the old config. Once you're happy that your new kernel is working fine, you can start changing some config and compiling another copy if you want to. There are many things you can choose to include in your kernel, exclude, or compile as a module. Compiling it as a module is best for most things on a desktop or laptop. The system will only load the hardware modules it needs, and any other modules can be loaded and unloaded as desired while the system is running. Compiling a module just gives you the OPTION to use it or not.
Items you need in order to access the disk should be compiled into the kernel. You can't load a module from disk if you can't yet access the disk. :)
80% of computers sold last year were SOCs (mobiles). Another x% were servers. So the desktop market is maybe 15% of the market. More Linux systems were sold last year than Windows systems and the trend is increasing each year.
With that said, who said Linux doesn't matter on the desktop? It matters on MY desktop, and has for 15 years. For most of the last 15 years, I worked for an information security company, so Microsoft software was not allowed on the company network. All desktops and laptops were Linux, no as were some firewalls, load balancers, most servers, etc.
Just about 1000 people, at least if we're taking about a metric ton. That's not a lot.
It doesn't drop anything. You tell it where you want stdout and stderr to go and it will go there.
What makes this Kernel LTS? As far as I'm aware LTS is a term Ubuntu uses for their releases which they support for two years, indepedent of their "normal" releases -- I've never heard of an LTS kernel branch. Will there be kernel 4.4 update releases after the mainline kernel has gone on to 4.5?
I guess I'm just an old fart that happened to adapt to SMF early on. All the complaints were the same, now every last Solaris holdout will shove SMF in your face if you try to do a comparison to Linux.
Honestly, the SMF manifests are somewhat easier to understand, but systemd is more powerful. And systemd is only going to get better, as they have motivated ppl. behind the project, unlike Mr. Ellision that can't wait until Solaris meets the deuce.
Assuming the average nerd weighs 100 kg a metric ton is just 10 people.
Which effectively doubles the *BSD user base, of course. :-)
from reading it, anyone can see it was the most lame-assed troll so it deserved its mod value.
"The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
yawn..... trolling of a desperate nature detacted
"The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
Anonymous Coward: Re: Is the systemd problem fixed yet? (Score:2, Informative):
"Like doing the work of actually supporting the alternatives yourself. I have a regular day job. I spend nights and weekends packaging software for a popular GNU/Linux distribution. I'm not alone. I have better things to do than to make sure that everything works with every possible combination of systemd or non-systemd just because a few people have something against it. If you think it's so important to not use systemd then you better step up and do the work yourself. link"
I totally believe you, that you package software for a popular GNU/Linux distribution, I really do, really :)
Let me preface this by saying that I am not, by any means, a professional Linux administrator. I did, on the other hand, admin a bunch of servers as a part of my profession but those were mostly Unix and then Windows and then I hired competent professionals.
That said, I'd love to hate SystemD. I love me a good hate-fest. I keep pre-pitched torches at the ready and carry a fold-away assault pitchfork. I have various servers at home, some running on real server hardware, and a whole network of computers. (What self-respecting geek doesn't?) I have more VMs than I possibly need, doing things that I have no idea what I was thinking at the time, and am connected to my system in Maine via the most convoluted route possible. I have co-lo equipment that sits mostly idle and houses a few friend's sites and that's about it... It doesn't really do much of anything but, damn it, I have it!
You know what almost all these various computers have in common? Oh, they've got a whole host of distros on them - I'm not even sure I can quickly figure out which one is which any more. My topography looks like it was designed by a crack-addled five year old with admin privileges. I'm currently using a Live USB (Lubuntu), through a VPN, to my house, in a VM, to the 'net, through a VPN - and I'm skipping a few steps to keep it simple for you. This thing, for lack of a better word, shouldn't even run - never mind be stable. But this thing, with all these distros, has that one thing in common that I asked about. It's SystemD.
Yup. I guess they all have Linux in common but they sure as hell don't all have the same version of the kernel. So, there's that. But, they do all have SystemD (except for a few VMs - those are BSD, Minix, Indiana, and a few others but those don't actually get booted very often) for the most part. The all seem to work. Oh, I tried to hate SystemD. Yet, it's not caused me a single problem yet. I learned a few new comments, I've surely done something that should have broken it by now, and I've even read parts of the man pages.
Oh, I know it's not the Unix Way. Well, except it could be 'cause the Unix Way has exceptions. I know, it's got binary logging but - you can actually read those logs with a few different tools if you need to. I haven't needed to so I won't say that they work well but I'm told they work well enough. Yes, it does more than it needs to and it's not what we're used to. Meh, I'm okay with that - staying static is nice for some things and avoiding monolithic things is a good idea. Yet, it works. It works fine for me. I know, I am not everyone but I suspect the vast majority of the people complaining haven't actually used it. Even Hairyfeet complains and he's a Windows user - he's an ardent opponent of SystemD but he's probably never even tried a distro with it.
So, yeah, my pitchfork is starting to get rusty and needs to be sharpened again. My torches were lit but I just dunked 'em in water 'cause there didn't appear to be any monster that needed slaying. It's too bad, I had enough torches to go around. I want to hate it - I really do. It's not that I have some great skill that keeps it working - it works DESPITE my best efforts to screw things up. Oh, I screw up lots of things but it's not yet been the fault of SystemD nor has it prevented me from repairing my mistakes.
I dunno... I notice lots of lists of things people hate. I notice very few anecdotes of how it has harmed them. I've noticed even less actual compilations of data concerning it. If it's that bad then, well, we should have some data and someone would have compiled it. (The data, not systemd.) If a bumbling idiot, such as myself, can manage it - and not have a problem, then it seems only logical that smarter folks can figure it out, no? I mean, hell, I'm in a Live USB environment because I hosed GRUB again and I've not yet rebooted after fixing it. You'd think that, by now, SystemD would have been a problem for me. I kind of wish it had, then I could blame my mistakes on it.
What? I made a typo?!? It's
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
That and it's not root access. It's just the bootloader. It's not even a very valuable security tool to use. There are few reasons to even have used that feature and to rely on it solely seems foolhardy. I could see it in use at a kiosk but one shouldn't be allowing physical access to the computers there nor allow users to issue reboot commands from there. All-in-all, a bug but not a very important bug and overblown by people who seem to think it gave potential "root" access by itself. It's not their fault that they were misled, it's their fault that they didn't actually take the time to learn better.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
It used to be that Linux was dependable for cool stuff, but the BSDs are just dependable, that's my first impression.
Kernel is still required to print the systemd's output. No other piece of software in the system is allowed to use the output, as the systemd owns it.
Systemd causes many problems for many users, including Linux distribution installations that do not boot properly.
What? Of all the things to complain about systemd you go with this nonsense?
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=92414
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1504584
Started with between 4.2.* and the 4.3 release candidate. If you've got an intel iGPU on your CPU, you might get suspend issues. First suspend will work, second will fail but the system still responds, after that you've basically got a hard crash and needs to reset. Was still present in 4.4RC8 and I saw no i915 fixes related to this.
Hoping for a fix.
This is an article about the linux kernel. Random systemd complaints like the one you champion so are offtopic and very annoying. While systemd affects the greater GNU/Linux ecosystem, it has squat-all to do with the kernel.
I don't have mod points right now, and so didn't have to spend my mod points on -1-offtopic'ing the shrill anti-systemd crowd that try to hijack any vaguely linux-related thread. I was glad to see that someone else did most of the work already; but lots of this offtopic thread still needs to be modded down, present comment included.
And seriously, about 90% of the systemd rants, whines, complaints are completely offtopic--it's an annoying monomania, like watching a certain other monomaniac who seems to believe that the windows hosts file is relevant to any discussion. Seems like only about 1 in 10 of you people knows how to actually bend your agenda into an actual on-topic post. "When will the systemd problem be fixed" is not in any way on-topic in a discussion of a new kernel release and its support term, because--warning, technical information ahead--systemd isn't part of the kernel, doesn't come from the kernel team. The kernel is completely init-agnostic.
I know I won't convince you people with logic and perspective, but I hope that this information helps you to understand that it's not a grand shashdot conspiracy against you--you're just annoying and offtopic, and people like me are modding you appropriately.
The only problem systemd causes is it gives voice to people whining about systemd. In other respects it works as intended and completely satisfactorily.
You could consider debian KFreeBSD instead, it's debian with the FreeBSD kernel - and it's not got systemd and probably never will.
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
You can't expect the anti-systemd crowd to know that systemd is not a relevant topic in the discussion of the kernel. They literally have no idea how Linux works. They constantly make absurd and baseless claims like " Any time I've tried using Linux lately on my computers I've experienced problems with systemd.". In order to believe that you would have to believe that the majority of users experience problems with systemd. It's like the "Don't trust SSDs!" crowd. They latch on to a technology that had a rough start and then try to claim that it is just as rough today as it was three years ago. The goal isn't to change the minds of Linux users, who would readily know that their claims are bullshit. The goal is to keep people away from Linux who might otherwise switch. I mean, I can't imagine who might have that goal of course, but clearly someone does. (To be fair it is likely a combo of M$ shills and other nayer-say-wells, like the guy who constantly gets bit by his own incompetence and blames the tool for his aborted creation.)
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
So it comes broken by default then?
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
If you are going to spell something out, you should have a clue how to spell it. You don't. Now off you go little fucktard ...
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Yes, and it is still missing the tracking and spying features of the Windows 10, which are so important for "improving the experience".
You may be of the opinion that the OS doesn't matter but after billions and billions of dollars MS spent on development and marketing, they don't buy phones with Windows on them.
> or Android could have easily been BSD based.
And every Dell, HP, and Compaq desktop could have easily be running Mac, had Apple chosen to allow that. Mitt Romney could have president. That's not what happened.
Then don't use a linux that has systemd :) simple :D seriously there are a few out there from PCLinuxOS to Slackware to Duvian (sp) etc no reason to use what you don't want :)
Alie
http://chimpbox.us
This is an article about the linux kernel.
Alas, systemd does have its eyes on the very kernel. Rembember that the systemd crowd is super-insistent in its push to implement D-Bus in the kernel. Consider also that the maintainer of the LTS kernels is really into the systemd craptasm. He's one of the cheerleaders of kdbus.
To demonstrate that systemd's push for the kernel has indeed been a concern for kernel developers, consider this from Ted Ts'o in the LKML from a year ago.
systemd works great for millions of people. I am sure most of them did not even notice the change (unless their distro was previously using sysvinit and their boot got much faster). So either you only tried systemd on a really buggy distro, maybe a development release, or you did had some complicated set of custom boot scripts that broke, or you have a really odd hardware setup. Most distros still write the old ascii log files, so i don't see how debugging could be harder.
Once again, somne douchebag with no clue what he is talking about posts as an AC on Slashdot. There was a time when a moron who didn't know the difference between a bootloader and a kernel would be modded to oblivion and flamed ad infinitum, but alas Slashdot is no longer frequented mostly by competent people.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Baseless insults that ignore reality will not make you systemd-fanatics any friends. Even though ignoring reality is how you have operated the whole time, others may actually have some real understanding of what is going on.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
It's common. I often I see comments disappearing and this should be impossible, only the editors could do this or users with access to "admin". And usually this happens when they have many diehard supporters of Linux involved in the topic.
Zero__Kelvin is a well known dickhead, ignore him.
What the hell are you talking about? Do you even know? I certainly didn't make any "baseless insults". Indeed there wasn't a single insult in the post, let alone a baseless one. You seem to think that calling an incompetent moron like yourself an incompetent moron is baseless. On the contrary, while it is an insult, it certainly isn't baseless.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Devuan.
Logs are for the rare occasions when something *does* go wrong. Saying "when was the last time you needed a log" is a vacuous statement unless the product is 100.00% reliable.
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That's what they tell me, but of course, my Debian systems using systemd actually still seem to log the same old stuff to the same old files. :)
I have not yet not found a log that I was unable to read. (That's English, right?) I am downstream from you - I'm in the Ubuntu family (more often than not) but I prefer Lubuntu. At this point, and I'm a silent subscriber to all sorts of mailing lists, I have to wonder how many of those people who register their complaints here (and at a few other sites) are actually Linux users or have problems?
Now, as I said, I'm not a professional admin and I'll be the first one to mention that. That means, feel free to discard anything I say or take it with a grain of salt. I'm okay with either, my ego is not that frail. I make more mistakes in a day than some folks make in a month. I'm okay with that - that's how I learn. If I'm not breaking something then I'm not learning. I'm old, I don't want to stagnate. Err... 58 is old. Trust me on this one. I've had a rather eventful and active life. Bits of me ache in the morning - bits that I didn't even know I had and I swear, I feel my brain plasticizing. It really gets more difficult to grasp stuff - that's why I switched to using Linux exclusively.
That said, I don't really feel comfortable saying this next part because it sounds like an accusation and I'm not in a position to judge. But... I think it needs to be asked. How many people are having issues, perhaps of their own making, and laying the blame on SystemD because they are unable to properly place the blame, made a mistake they don't want to own up to, or are otherwise inept? Remember, some percentage of people are the least competent systems administrators in the field.
That should not be seen as a specific accusation directed any particular person, of course. But, how many of the complaints are of that type? Another thing is that happy people don't tend to speak up. I'm kind of in an odd position - I restarted my Linux use and then went through the SystemD change (in various distros) not long after. I'm inept with both init systems! Oh, I'm not kidding... You saw how I gave a description of my connection to this very page? Yeah... I did that *on purpose.* I wouldn't let me near a production server and I sure as hell wouldn't place any more stock in my views other than that as someone who's actually trying to be objective and is able to break most anything. I'm still booted to that same Live USB, by the way.
So, I haven't had a problem. It has even been helpful. I wrote "comments" earlier but I meant to say that I'd learned a few new commands. I've actually made good use of some of them. If something's flaked out then I know to check journalctl and whatnot. I can grep (sort of) and maybe find stuff - with some help from Google and some notes that I've kept. If it doesn't start then I can chroot into it and have a look around and see what's wrong. I keep good backups but don't actually rely on them much - I'd rather fix stuff than repair stuff now. I'm getting more comfortable, I kind of understand the actual processes and what is happening and why - like I was much more adept at with a Windows system. Hell, I was awarded a Microsoft MVP for quite a few years before I gave up participating and just paid for my own damned MSDN subscription. (Shell, IE/OE, and Security awards. Meh, something like six years.)
I really do have a knack for breaking stuff - and I try. That's how I learn. I break it, I fix it, and in the process I learn why I broke it, why what I did fixed it, and how to not break it again in the future. (Sometimes that last one takes a few lessons.) If there's a button - I'll poke it. If there's a bash command, I'll run it. (Well, within reason. I do keep good backups for a reason.)
Yet, everything else has been broken by now - I've been doing this for a couple of years and a year in earnest, SystemD has not caused me one issue. I can even add services to the startup, programs to the startup, disable 'em, change 'em delay 'em, and (I think) make 'em check for failure and restart. Yet, strangely enough, it hasn't broken and I've not yet found a log I couldn't read.
Ah well.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Yeah, I didn't mean you specifically; rather the idea of this being a feature added to the mainline kernel for everybody, which sounds like a potential attack vector not unlike the ability to reflash your BIOS from software to me.
I was kind of casually messing around with Linux (LiveCDs, then within a year or two a dual-boot) since not too long after I started college (headed towards 10 years ago now? damn.), but the limit of my expertise on that front was basically googling enough to get some desktop stuff configured.
Then my first job out of college had us on Fedora workstations so I picked up some bash and command line stuff and emacs. Since I gradually got more used to being on the command line than using Windows Explorer* I ended up booting Mint most of the time. Then when my old tower gave out this last summer, I got a x64 Windows 8.1 machine that doesn't let me run the several 1995-2002-era games that I bothered booting Windows at all for, basically. So now they're in an XP VM and I'm trying not to think about wrestling with the update arm-twisting on 8 again next time I boot it, now ;)
* Tab complete is so much faster if you know where you're going, right? And it seems like whenever I search for anything in Explorer it always tries to tell me it doesn't exist when I definitely know it does. Now with a simple(ish) grep wrapper and a pipe or two I can actually FIND things that I search for! :)
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1. The Linux kernel is useless by itself.
2. The Linux kernel becomes useful when used with a Linux distribution that includes other software.
3. All of the major Linux distributions include systemd.
The most popular Linux-based operating system by far is Android, which does not include systemd. You also do not have to use it in major distributions like Slackware and Gentoo.
In short: for many users, systemd is effectively a bug that prevents the Linux kernel's functionality from being used.
A bug in distributions that include it maybe, but certainly not in the Linux kernel. More to the point desktop Linux distributions that require systemd are only a *very small* part of Linux kernel usage and in turn they are only a *very small* part of desktop computer usage.
To be honest, and Unix implement is an alternative. I have systems at home running Solaris (8-10), IRIX (6.5.29), and OS X (10.4 and 10.5 on PPC, 10.6 and 10.7 on Intel); I used to use HP-UX and AIX, and I've got a bit of FreeBSD experience at this point too. It's the Linux crowd that really likes to piss off its users.
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
Systemd is a pain in my side as an admin, and when I do help with open source software systemd isn't a concern of mine - Linux isn't my only target when it comes to software, it's Unix compatibility in general (actually, Linux compatibility isn't my main concern anymore either).
I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
Non-systemd linux distributions, 67 of them: http://without-systemd.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
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I use stderr frequently in development. It's convenient.
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Linux Kernel 4.4 LTS? There is no such thing. It is Linux Kernel 4.4, and which vendors support it and for how long is up to them. Maintainer patches to a stable branch may only go on for a year or two, if that. After that it is pretty much up to various vendors.