[ale] Time for this Grey Beard to stir up some stuff

[Bob Toxen]

Solomon,

I disagree.  Well designed software just works, isn't fragile,
easy to configure, and gives USEFUL error messages like
"cannot access foobar.com" or "cannot access info.com to do DNS lookup"
or "not receiving GPS signals" rather than the incompetent
"Something went wrong".

Honestly, I see the root problem as most people have learned to
accept Micro$loth's garbage and thus tolerate this.  Thus, the
vendors hire cheap inexperienced programmers with no real
education or talent.

Sadly this garbage has infused into Linux as well especially with
unnecessary complexity such as the /dev fake file system and systemd,
both of which I wish I could disable.

This is based on my over 40 years of programming experience, not
including 4 years at Berkeley and programming for 6 years before
that.

Bob Toxen
bob at verysecurelinux.com               [Please use for email to me]
http://www.verysecurelinux.com        [Network&Linux security consulting]
http://www.realworldlinuxsecurity.com [My book:"Real World Linux Security 2/e"]
Retired from Quality Linux & UNIX security and SysAdmin & software
   consulting since 1990.
Retired from Quality spam and virus filters.

"One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond where
the shadows lie...and the Eye is everwatching"
-- The Silicon Valley Tarot Henrique Holschuh with ... BobT's enhancement

On Wed, Jul 21, 2021 at 05:31:17PM -0400, Dow Hurst via Ale wrote:
> Solomon,
> You have defined the essential difference between a geek and a user.
> Dow
> 
> On Thu, May 27, 2021 at 9:21 AM Solomon Peachy via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, May 27, 2021 at 08:52:51AM -0400, Jerald Sheets via Ale wrote:
> > > What exactly is happening to the discipline, and how can we ???do
> > > better??? as a discipline?
> >
> > The "solution" is make things crappier.  Seriously.
> >
> > You know as much as you do because you spent decades working on/with
> > stuff that would break if you looked at it sideways, and that's after
> > sacrificing untold quantities guatamelan poultry to get it going to
> > begin with.
> >
> > Today, thanks in part to the efforts of folks like you and I, the base
> > stuff generally JustWorks(tm)... so KidsTheseDays(tm) spend their time
> > working on (and thus, building expertise on) other things.
> >
> > ObAnalogy: Do you miss carburated cars?  Having to check and adjust
> > ignition points?  Hard starts in particularly hot, cold, humid, and/or
> > dry days?  A pinhole leak in half a mile of vacuum hoses causning
> > stumbling under load, the inability to hold idle, or simply not being
> > able to start at all?
> >
> > Or do you prefer to get in the car, turn the key, and expect it to
> > JustWork(tm) every time, regardless of environmental condtitions or
> > where you live, so you can spend your time and energy on something you
> > actually care about?
> >
> >  - Solomon
> > --
> > Solomon Peachy                        pizza at shaftnet dot org
> > (email&xmpp)
> >                                       @pizza:shaftnet dot org   (matrix)
> > High Springs, FL                      speachy (freenode)
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> >

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