path: root/content/posts/2024-03-10-the-abysmal-state-of-linux-in-the-year-2024.md

---
title: "The abysmal state of Linux in the year 2024 and a case against shared object libraries"
url: the-abysmal-state-of-linux-in-the-year-2024-and-a-case-against-shared-object-libraries.html
date: 2024-03-10T21:41:52+01:00
type: post
draft: false
---

## Personal critique

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.

Let's compare these two distributions when it comes to packages sizes
and shared object libraries and see they fair.

## Debian

```ini
root@debian: cat /etc/os-release

PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="12"
VERSION="12 (bookworm)"
VERSION_CODENAME=bookworm
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"
```

### Top 20 packages by size

```sh
dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Installed-Size}\t${Package}\n' | sort -nr | head -n 20 | awk '{size=$1;unit="KB"; if (size >= 1024) {size=size/1024; unit="MB"}; if (size >= 1024) {size=size/1024; unit="GB"}; printf "%.2f %s\t%s\n", size, unit, $2}'
```

| Size      | Package                    |
|-----------|----------------------------|
| 651.87 MB | libwine                    |
| 389.26 MB | linux-image-6.1.0-18-amd64 |
| 345.76 MB | brave-browser              |
| 323.74 MB | google-chrome-stable       |
| 265.31 MB | llvm-14-dev                |
| 225.76 MB | firefox-esr                |
| 141.77 MB | fluid-soundfont-gm         |
| 114.67 MB | libreoffice-core           |
| 113.41 MB | containerd.io              |
| 112.77 MB | libnvidia-rtcore           |
| 111.92 MB | libllvm15                  |
| 106.56 MB | ibus-data                  |
| 104.92 MB | libllvm14                  |
| 99.20 MB  | docker-ce                  |
| 77.39 MB  | docker-buildx-plugin       |
| 72.00 MB  | libwebkit2gtk-4.1-0        |
| 71.93 MB  | libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37       |
| 70.51 MB  | libwebkitgtk-6.0-4         |
| 69.25 MB  | nvidia-kernel-dkms         |
| 66.64 MB  | gcc-12                     |

This is more or less fresh system that is being used daily for work.

### Number of packages installed

```sh
dpkg -l | grep '^ii' | wc -l

2217
```

### Number of shared object libraries on system (*.so)

*Note: Some of them could be symlinks to each other so take this with
a grain of salt.*

```sh
find /lib /lib64 /usr/lib /usr/lib64 -follow -type f -name "*.so.*" | wc -l

5156
```

### Shared objects sorted by size

```sh
find /lib /lib64 /usr/lib /usr/lib64 -type f -name "*.so.*" -exec du -h {} + | sort -rh | head -n 20
```

| Size | Package                                                        |
|------|----------------------------------------------------------------|
| 113M | /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnvidia-rtcore.so.525.147.05       |
| 112M | /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libLLVM-15.so.1                      |
| 105M | /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libLLVM-14.so.1                      |
| 70M  | /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libwebkit2gtk-4.1.so.0.12.8          |
| 70M  | /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libwebkit2gtk-4.0.so.37.67.8         |
| 69M  | /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libwebkitgtk-6.0.so.4.4.8            |
| 57M  | /usr/lib/llvm-14/lib/libclang-cpp.so.14                        |
| 45M  | /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnode.so.108                       |
| 43M  | /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnvidia-glcore.so.525.147.05       |
| 41M  | /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnvidia-eglcore.so.525.147.05      |
| 31M  | /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libmozjs-102.so.102.15.1             |
| 30M  | /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libicudata.so.72.1                   |
| 30M  | /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libclang-14.so.14.0.6                |
| 29M  | /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/nvidia/current/libcuda.so.525.147.05 |
| 28M  | /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjavascriptcoregtk-6.0.so.1.1.14   |
| 28M  | /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjavascriptcoregtk-4.1.so.0.4.14   |
| 28M  | /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjavascriptcoregtk-4.0.so.18.23.14 |
| 24M  | /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libnvidia-glvkspirv.so.525.147.05    |
| 23M  | /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz3.so.4                           |
| 22M  | /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgs.so.10.00                       |

## Fedora

```ini
root@fedora: cat /etc/os-release

NAME="Fedora Linux"
VERSION="36 (Workstation Edition)"
ID=fedora
VERSION_ID=36
VERSION_CODENAME=""
PLATFORM_ID="platform:f36"
PRETTY_NAME="Fedora Linux 36 (Workstation Edition)"
ANSI_COLOR="0;38;2;60;110;180"
LOGO=fedora-logo-icon
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:36"
HOME_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/"
DOCUMENTATION_URL="https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/fedora/f36/system-administrators-guide/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://ask.fedoraproject.org/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/"
REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT="Fedora"
REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT_VERSION=36
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT="Fedora"
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION=36
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Legal:PrivacyPolicy"
SUPPORT_END=2023-05-16
VARIANT="Workstation Edition"
VARIANT_ID=workstation
```

### Top 20 packages by size

```sh
rpm -qa --queryformat '%{SIZE}\t%{NAME}\n' | sort -rn | head -n 20 | awk '{size=$1;unit="B"; if (size >= 1024) {size=size/1024; unit="KB"}; if (size >= 1024) {size=size/1024; unit="MB"}; if (size >= 1024) {size=size/1024; unit="GB"}; printf "%.2f %s\t%s\n", size, unit, $2}'
```

| Size      | Package                      |
|-----------|------------------------------|
| 572.91 MB | google-cloud-sdk             |
| 559.76 MB | wine-core                    |
| 530.12 MB | wine-core                    |
| 383.76 MB | code                         |
| 350.98 MB | golang-bin                   |
| 318.04 MB | brave-browser                |
| 302.78 MB | google-chrome-stable         |
| 282.24 MB | libreoffice-core             |
| 273.43 MB | firefox                      |
| 253.00 MB | ocaml                        |
| 223.60 MB | proj-data-us                 |
| 219.46 MB | zoom                         |
| 217.81 MB | glibc-all-langpacks          |
| 199.31 MB | qemu-user                    |
| 196.79 MB | edk2-aarch64                 |
| 194.77 MB | fluid-soundfont-lite-patches |
| 194.25 MB | java-17-openjdk-headless     |
| 176.75 MB | java-11-openjdk-headless     |
| 156.80 MB | pandoc                       |
| 154.82 MB | qt5-qtwebengine              |

What is interesting that the most of these packages are from a a system
that are daily in use.

### Number of packages installed

```sh
dnf list installed | tail -n +3 | wc -l

3484
```

### Number of shared object libraries on system (*.so)

*Note: Some of them could be symlinks to each other so take this with
a grain of salt.*

```sh
find /lib /lib64 /usr/lib /usr/lib64 -follow -type f -name "*.so.*" | wc -l

8894
```

### Shared objects sorted by size

```sh
find /lib /lib64 /usr/lib /usr/lib64 -type f -name "*.so.*" -exec du -h {} + | sort -rh | head -n 20
```

| Size | Package                                                                        |
|------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 128M | /usr/lib64/libQt5WebEngineCore.so.5.15.10                                      |
| 55M  | /usr/lib64/llvm13/lib/libclang-cpp.so.13                                       |
| 53M  | /usr/lib64/libclang-cpp.so.14                                                  |
| 50M  | /usr/lib64/libwebkit2gtk-4.0.so.37.57.6                                        |
| 49M  | /usr/lib64/libnode.so.93                                                       |
| 45M  | /usr/lib64/libOpenImageDenoise.so.1.4.3                                        |
| 33M  | /usr/lib64/llvm13/lib/libclang.so.13.0.1                                       |
| 30M  | /usr/lib64/libclang.so.14.0.5                                                  |
| 29M  | /usr/lib64/libopenvdb.so.9.0.0                                                 |
| 28M  | /usr/lib/libicudata.so.69.1                                                    |
| 28M  | /usr/lib64/libmozjs-78.so.0.0.0                                                |
| 28M  | /usr/lib64/libicudata.so.69.1                                                  |
| 26M  | /usr/lib64/libusd_usd_ms.so.0                                                  |
| 26M  | /usr/lib64/libgdal.so.30.0.3                                                   |
| 22M  | /usr/lib64/libjavascriptcoregtk-4.0.so.18.21.6                                 |
| 22M  | /usr/lib64/libgs.so.9.56                                                       |
| 22M  | /usr/lib64/google-cloud-sdk/platform/bundledpythonunix/lib/libpython3.9.so.1.0 |
| 17M  | /usr/lib64/libgtkd-3.so.0.9.0                                                  |
| 17M  | /usr/lib64/libgeocoding.so.8.12                                                |
| 14M  | /usr/lib64/libmfxhw64.so.1.35                                                  |

## Quick observation

```
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjavascriptcoregtk-6.0.so.1.1.14
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjavascriptcoregtk-4.1.so.0.4.14
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjavascriptcoregtk-4.0.so.18.23.14
```

These three packages are probably used by three different applications,
and nothing else needs them. I could be mistaken, but in any case they
should just be packages alongside the application that requires them
and be done with it.

## So, now what?

The main point is that, yes these packages can be big, but if we are
honest, what would a couple of additional megabytes that would include
shared object libraries actually do? Probably nothing! And it would make
maintenance an entirely different game.

There is also this big elephant in the room, the users. They aren't
concerned about package dependencies. They don't care if an application
is 20 MB bigger. Nobody cares! But they certainly do care about borked
systems and non-working dependencies and hunting for solutions why
`libFlac` was not found even though they have it installed.

Operating systems should abstract these complexities away from the
user. And I am not saying that the Linux kernel is at fault. I mean the
operating system as a whole.

This is why I am a massive proponent of
[AppImages](https://appimage.org/). Flatpaks and Snaps are OK, but they
still have their own package management and the whole dependency problem
because they try to optimize for space, and they sacrifice the simplicity.

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.

Honorable mention goes to [AppImageHub](https://www.appimagehub.com/). If
possible, I continually try to find applications there and take care of
updating them myself. I don't need hand holding or a constant up-to date
system. I just want my system to be stable and when some application has
gotten some significant new features I can download that myself. It's
about the choice and not being forced into this churn that requires
constant updating and keeping up with things. At this point, using Linux
is more like a second job, and I was so stoked when this was not a case
anymore in the past. This is why I feel like the last 10 years were a
regression disguised as progress.

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)