What Needs Fixing In Linux 865
An anonymous reader writes "Infoweek's Fixing Linux: What's Broken And What To Do About It argues that the 17-year-old open-source operating system still has problems. Leading the list is author Serdar Yegulap's complaint that the kernel application binary interfaces are a moving target. He writes: 'The sheer breadth of kernel interfaces means it's entirely possible for something to break in a way that might not even show up in a fairly rigorous code review.' Also on his list of needed fixes are: a consistent configuration system, to enable distribution; native file versioning; audio APIs; and the integration of X11 with apps. Finally, he argues that Linux needs a committee to insure that all GUIs work consistently and integrate better on the back-end with the kernel."
Desktop environment standards? Okay. (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.freedesktop.org/ [freedesktop.org] is the link. Was that really so hard?
Mod TFA -1 Offtopic (Score:1, Informative)
The author made some points with ABI stability, audio architecture and filesystem versioning. The rest is bullshit. GUI? Go whine at the GNOME/KDE guys. X11? Go post to the X11 dev list. Package managers? Go fuck RedHat for RPM and Debian for dpkg.
In other words, the things you are bullshitting about are not *Linux* things.
Almost everything he complains about is wrong (Score:5, Informative)
He complains:
Who else should do it?
He complains the distribution differences make life hard for people selling software. Well, tough, if they want money maybe they should work for it?
I know! Let's recreate the windows registry, but this time better!. Yawn.
Just about the shittiest article I've read for a long time.
Re:Linux is like Wikipedia (Score:5, Informative)
> 1. Filesystem metadata/permissions. An example would be that a file should be able to keep a list of all the dates it was accessed.
Makes things slow. Most distros turn off logging the 'atime' (access time) because this requires writing to the disk on every read.
> Why can a file only have one owner/group?
To keep things simple, the GUI is kept this way. You can make it as complicated as want though with Access Control Lists - just like you do in Windows.
For a GUI way to set this, see something like: http://rofi.roger-ferrer.org/eiciel/?s=5
2. Root is God. This must really be fixed. There should be a way for root to irrevocably divest its powers, and root does not need to access users file.
This is called SELinux and is installed with pretty much every distribution. But for what you want, the users should instead use encrypted home directories.
> 3. They lie about everything is a file. Why not extend this to networking resources ('cd http://www.gnu.org/ [gnu.org] would be cool ).
This is called FUSE, and is included with every distribution.
Workaround for static IP vs. DHCP (Score:4, Informative)
My biggest complainst are that I cannot get a static IP on my home wireless while getting DHCP everywhere else
Then tell your home wireless to reserve an IP address for your laptop's MAC address. It's an option in the Netgear router I use.
Re:X session switching (Score:3, Informative)
You have to install it yourself, from a script, but x.game works perfectly for playing full screen games and being able to get back to the desktop quickly. After you install the x.game script, you just add "x.game start" to the front of your launcher commands such as this:
x.game start wine "/media/DATA/programs/Warcraft III/War3.exe"
Then you use ctrl+alt+f7 and ctrl+alt+f12 to pop in and out. Very handy if you need to adjust the volume. Also handy as a boss key! You leave the game, it keeps running, and there is no trace of it visually.
I use it every day for over a year, and recommend it. I got it from an ubuntu forum thread. Here is the link: http://sudan.ubuntuforums.com/showthread.php?t=699332 [ubuntuforums.com] Just take it from the first post, he edits it and it is up-to-date.
Re:From my cold dead hands. (Score:3, Informative)
This is, I believe, what -v is for.
Really, what's with all the strawmen today?
Re:Problems: (Score:2, Informative)
So to the parent of this thread, don't give me that bullshit.
broadcom wireless fix using ndiswrapper (Score:3, Informative)
I'm with you. If my laptop Broadcom wireless worked out of the box on Ubuntu, I'd be using that instead of Windows.
It's not out of the box, but it's simple enough, and it worked for me twice already on 2 different laptops. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/bcm43xx/Feisty_No-Fluff [ubuntu.com]
How can Linux win me back? Whatever machine I bring home from Best Buy has to "just work" at the end of the install/config program. Is that too much to ask for?
Just buy a machine with linux preinstalled if you want no hassles, especially for laptops. And for desktop pcs in my experience everything does just work out of the box nowadays.
Re:What linux ACTUALLY needs (Score:4, Informative)
Re:What linux ACTUALLY needs (Score:5, Informative)
We don't want that support. Those vendors have a tendency to produce low-quality drivers, and reduce the overall stability of the system.
Most Vista and XP (and previously, Windows 98) apologists agree that the biggest reason Windows is perceived as unstable is due to low-quality drivers for low-quality hardware.
By selecting hardware known to work with Free Software, I'm pretty much guaranteed a solid and stable experience.
Re:*yawn* another tired argument (Score:4, Informative)
...it seems like someone with very little experience wouldn't know exactly what package would best suit them....
Isn't that going to be true with any operating system? If you don't understand it, you ask, or buy it premade for you.
If someone isn't willing to investigate, then the only way they will start using linux is if someone installs it for them. Whether that person be a friend, or a store-bought eeePC with a debian etch variant.
Committee?? (Score:5, Informative)
the kernel application binary interfaces are a moving target.
That's why we have glibc, which abstracts that ABI from applications.
Kernel driver interface - the horse [mjmwired.net] was already beaten to death many times ( see here [slashdot.org]).
a consistent configuration system, to enable distribution;
Windows tried that with Registry - and it didn't worked. And it will never work since "one size never fits all" requirements of all applications.
native file versioning;
Was tried many times before and failed miserably. As long as majority of files are blobs, versioning on level of file system makes no sense. Versioning on level of applications is implemented already more or less everywhere it was needed and SVN/git is there for the rest of applications.
audio APIs;
See ALSA [alsa-project.org] and its user-space libraries.
See SDL [libsdl.org].
and the integration of X11 with apps.
As was shown by FreeDesktop [freedesktop.org] initiative not really needed nor X [x.org] folks want to be bothered by all the end user bells and whistles.
Finally, he argues that Linux needs a committee to insure that all GUIs work consistently and integrate better on the back-end with the kernel.
Committee?? [quotegarden.com] Buahahhahahaha!!!1!!cos(0)!!!!!!!
All what he says was tried before (see (11) [faqs.org]) and generally can be described as "failed".
Re:NetworkManager (Score:2, Informative)
Have you tried wicd?
http://wicd.sourceforge.net/
I use the default NetworkManager on my desktop because it has never given me problems, but wicd on both laptops because the interface is so much clearer and full featured.
Re:NetworkManager (Score:3, Informative)
I tried it on ibex as well, and can confirm the grandparent's experience. Network Manager has a very bad habit of forgetting static IP settings. (ibex open bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/256054 [launchpad.net] )
MOD PARENT TROLL (Score:1, Informative)
USB barely works???
Linux supports more device, better, than any Windows OS. It can saturate USB2 high-speed bandwidth on a mass storage device. Try that with Windows!
Speaking of which, recent Linux distros can mount any disk, be they MacOSX hfs+ or Vista NT filesystems, or, obviously, Unix filesystems. Natively.
Bluetooth USB adapters work out of the box. On Windows they require installing craptastic drivers, this takes half an hour.
The main problem point wrt USB on Linux is webcams, due to the insane stupidity of hardware vendors, such as Philips and their NDAs. Fucking morons. But it's getting there.
Re:What linux ACTUALLY needs (Score:3, Informative)
We don't want that support. Those vendors have a tendency to produce low-quality drivers, and reduce the overall stability of the system.
This is countered with a simple rule - if it malfunctions or stalls, it no longer executes.
In the current state, Windows Vista can alert the user to a malfunctioning driver or device (in my case, it states nvlddmkm has failed and been restarted.) If a hardware driver is malfunctioning, the kernel can kill it and send a message to the appropriate monitoring program that a driver has crashed.
Re:What linux ACTUALLY needs (Score:3, Informative)
OK, not to sound like one of "those people" (you know the ones) but...
Did you try NDISWrapper? It's very easy to use (yes, it's command line... oh, god, I am one of those people!) and all you need is the Windows driver (unpacked, not an installer, as it needs to be able to see the .inf file).
If you've got NDISWrapper installed (if it's not, just go find it in Synaptic and install it like any other software) all you need to do is:
ndiswrapper -i /your/path/here/driver.inf
ndiswrapper -m
That's it. The first command installs the Windows driver, the second makes it load at boot. It's not "out of the box", but it's not a whole lot harder than installing the driver in Windows (assuming you know how to do it :) )
Mind you, not every driver will work this way, but it's how I got wireless working on the laptop I'm typing this from.
(oh, and this advice is not to be construed as disagreement with the view that Linux needs better vendor support)
NX does what you want (Score:3, Informative)
You must not have looked into NX very thoroughly... Particularly, these options:
EnableSessionShadowing: Each user can require to attach to an already running session.
EnableDesktopSharing: User can require to attach to the native display of the nodes.
I use NX to share my desktop session over my VPN, so that I can login with my laptop while I'm away from home.
Not only is NX very fast, but it also does not require a running program in the background (like x11vnc), since the SSH server doubles as an NX server if you login with user 'nx'.
My only complaint is that I can't then use public key auth to login to my own user from the 'nx' user (a limitation of the NX setup -- though frankly I don't see any reason why this shouldn't work... its probably just disabled for "security reasons")
Re:What linux ACTUALLY needs (Score:3, Informative)
I disagree. Wireless not working out of the box is a huge issue. I recently helped install openSUSE (I didn't have a choice in distro selection) on my girlfriend's desktop and we ran into this problem. How do you get online to figure out how to make the wireless card work on linux? You can't.
All the things you mentioned are easy problems to fix if you care about them and can get online to google them. Your video won't play, just search the net for solutions. Not so if you have a nonfunctioning wireless card.
Without a means of connecting to the internet an getting help Linux is worthless out of the box. This needs to be improved! Period.
We finally solved this problem buy switching back and forth between my computer and hers on my KVM switch. We eventually found out the specific USB Wireless adapter didn't work with Linux or at least was more complicated that it should have been to get functioning. We looked up which adapters would work out of the box and picked one up at Best Buy.
Most people are not going to buy new hardware to get an OS working. Her and I are nerd exception not the rule.
Re:Problems: (Score:3, Informative)
A well written program from 1998 will still work and install today.
Re:Problems: (Score:2, Informative)
Maya runs on Linux...
Re:Problems: (Score:3, Informative)
We've had windows looking desktops for 13 years. For example
http://www.xmission.com/~sa/fvwm-themes/redxp2.png [xmission.com]
Re:What linux ACTUALLY needs (Score:3, Informative)
Which creates a whole extra layer since drivers need to be virtual. x86 hardware doesn't support a kernel monitoring real hardware. This is why Vista had driver compatibility issues.
All you are doing is having Microsoft write the real driver and having hardware manufacturers provide data files for their drivers. Linux could do that.
Re:Problems: (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, and packages and repositories are a horrible kludge to fix the basic problem: a lack of binary compatibility between version or even distros.
I think you're backwards. "By-hand" binary distribution (by which I mean "you have to find and install and update it yourself separately from the rest of your system") is a not-nearly-as-functional workaround for systems that are are unable or unwilling to modernize. Seriously, tell me with a straight face it's easier to install and maintain software on Windows than Debian.
So you end up with a situation where a third-party developer either has to do the almost impossible task of compiling and packaging for all popular distros, or else depend on the goodwill and whims of a large number of people that they do the work him.
Yeah, because we're just desperately short of people that are willing to package software. Obviously.