The quest to make Linux bulletproof

[sunrat]

Fascinating article about upcoming developments, particularly filesystems and package management. The comments may be at least as interesting as the article, with a lot of posters not happy about what many of the larger Linux organisations have in store.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/16/bulletproof_linux/?td=keepreading

 

Part 2 of a 2 part article. Part 1 is interesting but this one is the nitty-gritty.

 

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Re: let go of the idea of knowing what is kept where

It doesn't do away with the complexity, it just holds the struggling body completely underwater so the surface appears smooth.

 

 

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This is why we can’t have nice things

Informative article. My biggest takeaway from it is the state of thinking of Linux software devs.

There was a time when we had relatively simple package installation programs. I can see that there are issues with them so I’m not against improvements.

But the “improvements” are a tangled web of complexity and bloat…

- Having the file system functionality being integral to the installation - ref Snapper

- Having multiple copies of libraries installed - Snap

- Relying on the type of init system in use - Snap

- Having to reboot to install software - ALP. And the idea of running your OS as a VM do that you don’t have to reboot is nuts! Not using ALP would be much simpler and less resource hungry

…etc etc etc…

So the “solutions” to a problem that isn’t really THAT big is to add gloop upon gloop, ridiculous dependencies on stuff that nobody sane person would think necessary or desirable, and huge huge complexity.

It’s exactly this kind of thinking that makes multi gigahertz modern systems run like arthritic slugs and means they need gigabytes of memory just to wake up.

 

 

[securitybreach]

And that is another reason why I only use packages from the distros' official repos. These universal package managers come with their own issues. Not all distros are xdg base-directory compliant

[V.T. Eric Layton]

Linux is already relatively "bullet-proof". It's when folks start feckin' with it that it becomes less secure.

 

And yes, STAY WITHIN YOUR REPOS for software for you Linux installations. I rarely... and I mean RARELY ever build from scratch on Slackware. The repos have most of what I need, and if not, I have trusted sources for SlackBuilds.

[crp]

It is not that hard to make an OS bulletproof. You just won't have anything that is very useful for everyday use.

 

[raymac46]

Boy, the older I get the lazier I get and the more I like the Chrome OS model for casual use. No install, no config, no updating, no securing - just let the machine handle the details. No annoying apps if you don't want them. Open the lid, type in your PIN and you are good to go. All you have to do is get the right hardware - 1080P, beefy enough CPU, 8GB RAM - and everything flies.

Of course for my old junk I still need Linux, but hey...