Linux

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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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Are there any things in Linux that need to be started over from scratch? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 7 months ago by sepulcher@lemmy.ca to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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I'm curious how software can be created and evolve over time. I'm afraid that at some point, we'll realize there are issues with the software we're using that can only be remedied by massive changes or a complete rewrite.

Are there any instances of this happening? Where something is designed with a flaw that doesn't get realized until much later, necessitating scrapping the whole thing and starting from scratch?

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[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 4 points 7 months ago (10 children)

What's wrong with it?

[–] wgs@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 7 months ago (9 children)

$PATH shouldn't even be a thing, as today disk space is cheap so there is no need to scatter binaries all over the place.

Historically, /usr was created so that you could mount a new disk here and have more binaries installed on your system when the disk with /bin was full.

And there are just so many other stuff like that which doesn't make sense anymore (/var/tmp comes to mind, /opt, /home which was supposed to be /usr but name was already taken, etc ...).

[–] lemming934@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

How would virtual environment software, like conda, work without $PATH?

[–] wgs@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 7 months ago

Today's software would probably break, but my point is that $PATH is a relic from ancient times that solved a problem we don't have anymore.

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