[TUHS] Re: Version 256 of systemd boasts '42% less Unix philosophy' The Register

On 2024-06-16 23:56, David Arnold wrote: As an example of where I believe evolution is headed, I'd like to talk about the Elephant in the Room. Android. It has a Linux, and thus Unix, heritage. The parts of it that still depends on libc enjoys the quality of OpenBSD code, so it is blessed by some unixy simplicity. Yet regular users are so far removed from anything unix-like that it might as well be Multivac or the Mima. That it still has a file manager of sorts that knows the typical locations of downloads or photos is one of the last concessions to us "I know it's a computer, let me use it as one" types. By default, its apps are sandboxed and isolated in their own hives with their code (main(), library dependencies, media resources) and data presumably sealed off from the rest of the file system. Every code component is of course duplicated in every app. Each new version of Android seems to remove yet another aspect of its Unix roots. It didn't start there, though. Once upon a time, chroot() was a popular way to reduce attack surface area in Linux as well as elsewhere. You had to carefully populate it with just the dependencies that were needed. Containers followed, automating dependency provisioning. Android and its app ecosystem  is just a logical continuation of that evolution. Ubuntu has promoted "snaps," a kind of containerized applications that pretty much walks and quacks just like an Android app. Maybe it'sjust me being stupid trying to make things work with e.g. a snap-based version of synergy for keyboard and mouse sharing, but to me it seems that they typically don't see much of your file system, not to talk about any comprehensive view of your /dev. Quite a few distros seems to be headed that way. I'm probably both deluded as well as occluded in my reasoning, but I strongly suspect that the last generation of actively interested computer users where a majority understood processor memory models, I/O and interrupts is now largely promoted out of harms way. "Add another layer of abstractions so we don't need to care about such bullshit" seems to be the new call to arms. That dbus, systemd and Wayland isn't worse than they are is frankly an amazing success given the circumstances they were born under. -- Åke Nordin <ake.nordin(a)netia.se>, resident Net/Lunix/telecom geek. Netia Data AB, Stockholm SWEDEN *46#7O466OI99#