this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2024
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Linux

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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[–] Auzy@beehaw.org 8 points 6 months ago (3 children)

You can't think of it a single massive project. It's actually lots of small components.

We could argue the linux kernel is bloated too. The reality is though, provided the project is designed to be modular (as SystemD is), it actually makes sense to keep it together, to ensure there is a standard base and all the components are synchronised fully with their API's.

It also saves distro's a lot of effort.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 2 points 6 months ago

distro's

You can pluralize without the apostrophe. In fact, you never need an apostrophe to pluralize.

It also saves distro's a lot of effort.

Only if they want to break free.

And they don't need nfsroot or a separate consolidated /usr mount or, really, a whole host of things that lennart didnt understand and unilaterally broke like an arrogant noob.

But that's blasphemy.

[–] technom@programming.dev 2 points 6 months ago

In practice, all those tight coupling between components mean that it behaves more or less monolithic, despite the claims to the contrary. Replacing them with alternatives is a pain because something else breaks or some software has a hard dependency on it.

[–] secret300@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 6 months ago

Oooh okay that makes more sense. Thanks I didn't know that