From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 12:01:48 +0200 From: tlaronde@polynum.com To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net> Message-ID: <20140813100148.GB434@polynum.com> References: <201408130453.s7D4rPGQ025252@skeeve.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.3i Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Subject: Re: [9fans] OT: What linux has become Topicbox-Message-UUID: 0f16ad0a-ead9-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025 On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 10:02:46AM +0200, dante wrote: > >[...] > I also have the impression that the trend set by the original Unix > architecture (small, one-job components, generic interfaces) > is nowadays replaced in many areas with integrated solutions > ("frameworks") that provide non-separable components > and sometimes redundant interfaces. > >[...] > One reason why I try to take what I can from Plan9 is that I profoundly > mistrust systems that I cannot understand due to their size/bloat. > And the more "curious" (perhaps not...) is that the "trend" is on "security", while I fail to see how there can be any security when the software is not "maintenable" (from french : "tenir en main" i.e. be able to direct and keep in one's hand). There is a Borges short story about a library where one supposes that every text possible is kept, hence if "the" solution about the "why" is able to be expressed, "the" solution is for sure among the books. Problem : it is not sure that one reading it will for sure understand that this is "the" solution; and the time to read everything in order to find it exceeds largely one's life time. Consequence : this "ideal" solution is absolutely useless. Software nowadays seems like this : the time it takes to install and to start is time lost for working with (and this may amount to some time); the time to understand the thing or to debug it, is larger than an average life time, and is not possible for an average human. Security by threat (for example in "free" software): "one" can look at the code. Yes... Try to find a needle in a hay stack... And these beasts are Medusa: one look at the sources, and you're changed to stone by fear. There was also a comical story from a past artist about the "improvements". The propaganda had made advertising for the "perfect" washing powder. Problem: when the next one came out, it begun difficult to explain that it was more than the previous perfection, unless the very same vendor admitted the swindle... So the advertising was explaining that by using the "new" improved washing powder, it was even able to wash as perfectly as the old one, even if one made knots with the clothes to "hide" the dirt inside (probably because the "old" washing powder was using its big blue eyes to see the dirt, while the "new" was using its nose). Conclusion: one had the same result as before with the "improved" version, except it took time to make the supplementary knots...and a week to try to undo them after they spent some hours in the water... Are there still human beings believing that "progress" is a function of chronology: the newer, the better? -- Thierry Laronde http://www.kergis.com/ http://www.renaissance-francaise.fr/ Key fingerprint = 0FF7 E906 FBAF FE95 FD89 250D 52B1 AE95 6006 F40C