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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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The future of Linux (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

175 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm not proposing anything here, I'm curious what you all think of the future.

What is your vision for what you want Linux to be?

I often read about wanting a smooth desktop experience like on MacOS, or having all the hardware and applications supported like Windows, or the convenience of Google products (mail, cloud storage, docs), etc.

A few years ago people were talking about convergence of phone/desktop, i.e. you plug your phone into a big screen and keyboard and it's now your desktop computer. That's one vision. ChromeOS has its "everything is in the cloud" vision. Stallman has his vision where no matter what it is, the most important part is that it's free software.

If you could decide the future of personal computing, what would it be?

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 8 months ago (3 children)

I'd go a few levels deeper: the kernel development process seems to become more and more dysfunctional. Legacy code hindering innovation, bad people being bottlenecks and this absurdly ancient "send a patch via mail" process.

Currently, that's only sand in the gears, but if it gets worse, this could seriously threaten the future.

[–] Synthead 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I'm 100% with this. It doesn't have to be on GitHub, but something like GitHub would really help. It's easy to create a fork, a PR, and get good reviews on relevant lines of code. With email, not so much. In my opinion, If email really was better, few folks would adopt a VCS like GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

I mean, you could still have emails as the base layer, de facto it already is a well-defined protocol layer on top of SMTP, so why not slap a nice GUI on it and call it a day?

[–] Synthead 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Sounds like GitHub 😁

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Except not proprietary and solely owned by a FAANG company.

[–] PHLAK 1 points 8 months ago

You mean something like https://patchwork.kernel.org?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

What the heck even is the point of using email for this?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 8 months ago

It's established and vendor/platform independent.

I get the idea, but come on, the inventor of git, a distributed VCS is unable to have an actually distributed development?

[–] BitSound 18 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Linus wrote git before anything like github existed, and the best way to do it was email. They just haven't switched away from using email

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Weird.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

"send a patch via mail" process.

I don't see a problem with it. I don't know what tools you use, but the current process certainly isn't ancient. Even if I use GitHub or something else, I still highly depend on my e-mail to actually know somebody published a patch and if I am supposed to review it. I don't have to use a GUI coupled with shitty UI decisions. E-mails are very simple in their own way and I don't find it ancient or bad.