Tuesday 8 September 2009

G-ification of Linux system backend?



Linux is moving fast - improving/developing at an impressive pace - so much so, that it is difficult to keep up with the latest developments and changes - so much so, that we often don't even know about a change until it hits our desktop - often a year or more since the change was made!

And I notice a trend happening here - yep, the removal of the core 'backend' config tools: dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg, alsaconf, and even xorg.conf itself!

Now, it will be argued that Linux has improved so much that these tools are simply not needed any more, however - it is patently obvious to all from the Linux community forums, that these utils have been removed without substitution, leaving users who's systems have gone blank/quiet after upgrades etc. in the dark as to what to do next.

OK I do appreciate that things shouldn't be any more complicated than they need to be, and if something can just work without the user needing to even know about the possible configs - thats can be fine, *but* - where is the option to tweak/alter/adjust if we so want/need to? Isn't choice a fundamental core of the open source movement?

Is it our fault that a 'major change' to how an app/driver works isn't known about until it slaps (or doesn't!) us in the face?

Do we still have to put up with arrogant Linux devs telling us to RTFM?!

I don't think I am too happy about having 'functionality' being removed without decent explanation or equivalent/alternative choice available. I'm all for having a system that just works - but there is a fine line between that and a system lacking in simple and obvious config options!

Labels

animals (1) art (1) banksy (1) bash (1) beer (1) Big Green Gathering (1) bottles (1) cabinet office (1) chese (1) chrome (1) cider (1) Climate (1) copyleft (1) crap (1) cuba holiday (1) customer service (1) cycling (1) danny macaskill (1) dogs (1) drink (1) etc. (1) Freedom (1) friends (1) funny (1) geek (1) glass (1) google (1) governmnent (1) Green (1) health (1) idiots (1) IT (1) linux (2) media (1) microsoft (1) mtb (1) open source (1) open-source (1) problems (1) Protest (1) rail (1) safety (1) spirits (1) street (1) sweet (1) trails (1) trainline (1) trains (1) transport (1) unicode (1) windows (1) wine (1)