On Sat, Aug 18, 2012 at 08:11:58PM +1000, John Briggs wrote:
IMHO the cost of Linux embracing complexity is a loss of freedom. We must all decide personally if we are willing to pay this price or we remain true to the principles of GNU/Linux and abandon this type of software. At this time we as Arch users do not have to make this decision but we will shortly.
Well said. Arch devs are making he right decision to follow upstream. But LInux as a whole is going to suffer from this trend. Tying stuff tightly to the startup system will undoubtedly harm the high disposability principle spoken of in ESR's Art Of Unix Programming. When software loses this kind of orthogonality, rot sets in and it becomes harder to move to new technologes without breaking everything else. Yes, I imagine it is easier for folks in Red Hat to control things thru' a central authority of their own desgn. I feel the same way about my own systems. I do believe that there are real engineering consequences that we will suffer (not just in Arch but in other Linux distros as well) as a result of this highly coupled, overzealous aproach to startup and daemon management. It is true that linux is more unified and possibly more accessible to other corporate users and developers as a result of this. But at what technical cost?