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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[–] [email protected] 104 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (5 children)

Soon we will have to call it GNU/systemd/Linux

[–] [email protected] 48 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Nah. Replacing the kernel is probably planned for the next point release - it'll just be GNU/systemd

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Can we rename it GNUtriSystemD?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I mean it should kind of already be something like GNU/SystemD/X11/PipeWire/Linux, I guess.

It's not like the GNU utils are the only massive integral part of the OS. I think GNU/Linux caught on squarely because many people follow Stallman, and that's how he wants people to refer to it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

It definitely made way more sense at early on. I mean GNU made most of UX of using Linux at some point. Systemd, and the browser now make a much bigger portion than before, and the world is more than GNOME now too.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Systemd makes life easy. It also makes Linux more teachable. I like accessibility and don’t even mind this

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago (2 children)

hard disagree. life with plain text logs and daemon init scripts was so easy and nice. But we can't have nice things...

[–] [email protected] 33 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Those hacked together system-specific bash scripts were shit. Having a standard way of creating, starting, ensuring restarts,and logging services is so much better.

You can still get all the plain text logs you like.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

Those hacked together system-specific bash scripts were shit.

With a different feature set per script as well. The systemd service files have often been pushed upstream.

Pretty sure people liking those scripts never really tried dealing with them across distributions. Though this just rehashes things that were said when distributions decided if to switch to systemd. Still the same strange claim that those scripts are somehow easier. It wasn't, it is also way easier to package a systemd file from upstream than to maintain that stuff within a distribution.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (2 children)

How do you get plain-text logs instead of the garbage binary format that journalctl forces on you?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Set ForwardToSyslog=yes in journald.conf and install a syslog daemon. Also optionally Storage=volatile (I wouldn't set Storage=none unless you want systemd to no longer show you any logs anywhere including in systemctl status because I assume it will do that)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago
[–] [email protected] -1 points 6 months ago

Definitely reads like a Microsoft answer, seems so much easier than just reading text

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

By configuring journald to forward messages to syslog as is the default.

"forces on you" 🙄

Edit: Systemd has been around for 14 years. Did you never think to google this?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

It's not the default fwiw. From journald.conf(5):

By default, only forwarding to wall is enabled.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago

You know what's nice? Being able to sit down at any Linux distro and being able to set up and configure services without Googling how to use that particular distro's init system.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

But it's so unbearably slow.

Me when my computer that has a typical uptime of 37 days boots up in 7 seconds with systemd instead of 5.5 seconds with runit: 😡😡😡😡

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Lmao yeah exactly

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I'm not on the systemd hate train by any means, but I don't understand how this is any improvement over pkexec

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

I don’t understand how this is any improvement over pkexec

That has the same problem as sudo: the SUID bit is set for it.

The fact that run0 uses polkit is more of a byproduct that this kinda authentication is already done with polkit all over the place in systemd. You can have individual subcommand accessible to different users (for example everyone can systemctl status, but systemctl reboot needs to be in the wheel group) which is why its generally used within systemd already. And it wouldn't surprise me if again you can do it with this as well, limiting what commands can unconditionally run, need prompt or are completely blocked.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I'm unclear from the documentation, does pkexec work under non-GUI contexts?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

As long as you have polkit setup to work in terminal sessions, yes. This is pretty standard these days, though not particularly widely used.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Or as I've taken to calling it, GNU+systemd+Linux.