The disappearing sys_call_table export.
Quoted 8 lines · Chris Siebenmann
| The people who used to require that still have lists of approved
| operating systems. Linux is not on that list.To be blunt: and?
Linux is not and never will be all things to all people. (Some of that can be seen in the ongoing discussions over, eg, LSM.)
There are many features that have far too small a target market to be
of interest in mainline Unix.
Large organizations like to standardize things wherever possible.
Given an OS that is well suited for a fairly secure environment
that also runs widely-available office software, they will adopt it for both uses, thus locking out other operating systems.
Many of these decisions are made by Dumb White Guys sitting around
a boardroom table looking at feature lists, and pushed by even dumber 3-letter consulting firms whose technical representatives say things like "Yes, we will be decrypting all SSL sessions at the firewall to check for viruses."
So I think Linux needs these 'fringe' features if it's going to
continue to expand its user base in the face of such stupidity.
Quoted 11 lines
Chris Siebenmann wrote:
Many of these decisions are made by Dumb White Guys sitting around
a boardroom table looking at feature lists, and pushed by even dumber 3-letter consulting firms whose technical representatives say things like "Yes, we will be decrypting all SSL sessions at the firewall to check for viruses."So I think Linux needs these 'fringe' features if it's going to
continue to expand its user base in the face of such stupidity.
I, for one, completely disagree in the strongest way possible. This whole
argument style rings entirely hollow with me. I'd much rather say, "We don't do that because it's stupid. We will gladly explain to you why we think it's stupid, what you really want, and how to get that from us."
Deliberately designing in misfeatures so that dumb people will get what
they think they want is architectural suicide. I hope Linux never moves in that direction.
It's better to refuse to do things until and unless you're totally
convinced they are the right thing to do. That way, people know that anything you've done is right.
There will always be some friction between those who want to see Linux run
by as many people and machines as possible and those who think various other things are more important. I'm squarely in the "make the best possible OS" camp. If people don't want to run it, that's their loss.
DS