From a4517e3ad9f601ac878a3b7dd897222bc07b501c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Mitja Felicijan Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2024 22:02:09 +0100 Subject: Added post --- ...-the-abysmal-state-of-linux-in-the-year-2024.md | 80 ---------------------- 1 file changed, 80 deletions(-) delete mode 100644 content/2024-03-10-the-abysmal-state-of-linux-in-the-year-2024.md (limited to 'content/2024-03-10-the-abysmal-state-of-linux-in-the-year-2024.md') diff --git a/content/2024-03-10-the-abysmal-state-of-linux-in-the-year-2024.md b/content/2024-03-10-the-abysmal-state-of-linux-in-the-year-2024.md deleted file mode 100644 index ec69955..0000000 --- a/content/2024-03-10-the-abysmal-state-of-linux-in-the-year-2024.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,80 +0,0 @@ ---- -title: "The abysmal state of Linux in the year 2024" -url: the-abysmal-state-of-linux-in-the-year-2024.html -date: 2024-03-10T21:41:52+01:00 -type: post -draft: false ---- - -This is in part difficult to write, but then I think it is necessary. How -come Linux is worse than it was 10 years ago. This may very well be -a subjective opinion, or maybe I am looking at the situation with -rose-tinted glasses. - -Sure, we now have PipeWire and Wayland. We enjoy many modern advances -and yet, the practical use for me is worse than it was 10 years ago. Now -all of a sudden, I can't rely on the system to be stable like it was. I -don't remember the system bricking after an update, or the system becoming -laggy after 10 days uptime. This may be the issue with Fedora, though. - -Over the years, I have daily driven many distributions. From Gentoo, -Arch, Fedora to Ubuntu. My best memories were always with Debian. Just -pure Debian always proved to be the most stable system. I never had -issue or system breaking after an update. I can't say the same for Fedora. - -From the get-go, I had issues. I have an Nvidia card and even booting -presented issues sometime. This never happened on other distributions, -though they had their problems. Updating the system was basically an -exercise in gambling. How come an operating system that boasts with -the stability is so instable? And this was not isolated to my main -machine. This also happened on my X220 ThinkPad with Fedora on. - -Shared dependencies were a mistake! I understand that disk space was -limited back then. But this has given me more grief than any other -thing. I am all in for AppImages or something like that. I don't care -if these images are 10x bigger. Disk space now is plenty, and they -solve the issue with "libFlac.8.so is missing" and I have version 12 -installed. Which comes with unnecessary symlinking, downloading of older -versions and hoping that this will resolve the issue. - -Now, the biggest apologist of Linux will never admit this and even saying -something is wrong with this is considered a mortal sin. I, however, am -not concerned with cultist behaviors. This is bullshit! Things should be -better than 10 years ago, not worse. And I don't care how much lipstick -you put on this pig. After more than 20 years of using Linux as my main -system, I think I have earned a badge that gives me the right to say -the truth. - -Regardless of all this, I am still a massive fan. I still think Linux -is probably the most unobtrusive operating system, bar none. But the -complexity has gotten the best of it. It's bloated and too complicated -at this point. Understandably, you can't have a modern operating system -that competes with alternatives without sacrificing simplicity. But I -still think that there is another way. - -One of the best aspects of Linux must be outstanding package manager -support. Nevertheless, they are essentially solving a problem that should -have been solved and done with years ago. The number of gymnastics -that happen in the background for you to install a software is just -mind-boggling. The dependency graphs are insane. And Snaps and Flatpaks -tried to solve some of these things, but until a distribution comes out -that is completely devoid of shared dependencies, we will still live in -this purgatory. - -It would be an interesting exercise to make a prototype distribution -that does not rely on shared objects, but has everything packed in -AppImages. Probably a foolish endeavor, but maybe worth looking into. I -sense this kind of distribution would be highly unusable. Interesting -how far we have gotten. - -The year of the Linux desktop? I have strong doubts. We are in a worse -state than we were. This is very similar to The Paradox of Choice. The -more options we have, the worse it gets. Wayland competing with X. So -many window managers, you just get lost. So many choices. I have no idea -if this is even salvageable, or something new must be invented. - -Some interesting talks and videos - -- [Jonathan Blow on how an operating system should work](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0uE_chSnV8) -- [The Thirty Million Line Problem by Casey Muratori](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZRE7HIO3vk) -- [Avoiding a Shared Library Nightmare by John Biron](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPAGVT4Ctt4) -- cgit v1.2.3