ru.linux

 
 - RU.LINUX ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 From : Sergey Lentsov                       2:4615/71.10   14 Jun 2001  17:11:07
 To : All
 Subject : URL: http://lwn.net/2001/0614
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 

    [1][LWN Logo] 
    
                                [2]Click Here 
    [LWN.net]
    
              Bringing you the latest news from the Linux World.
    Dedicated to keeping Linux users up-to-date, with concise news for all
                                  interests
    
    Sections:
     Main page
     [3]Security
     [4]Kernel
     [5]Distributions
     [6]On the Desktop
     [7]Development
     [8]Commerce
     [9]Linux in the news
     [10]Announcements
     [11]Linux History
     [12]Letters
    [13]All in one big page
    
    Other LWN stuff:
     [14]Daily Updates
     [15]Calendar
     [16]Linux Stocks Page
     [17]Book reviews
     [18]Penguin Gallery
    
     [19]Archives/search
     [20]Use LWN headlines
     [21]Contact us
    
    TUCOWS.com:
     [22]linux.tucows.com
     [23]Ext2
     [24]Themes
    
    Recent features:
    - [25]GaКl Duval
    - [26]Kernel Summit
    - [27]Singapore Linux Conference
    - [28]djbdns
    - [29]LinuxWorld NY
    - [30]Jason Haas
    - [31]Larry Wall
    - [32]Bruce Momjian
    - [33]2000 Timeline
    - [34]Eric Raymond
    - [35]LWN coverage of Comdex 2000
    - [36]Ransom Love
    - [37]Guido van Rossum
    - [38]Paul Everitt
    - [39]Embedded Systems Conference
    - [40]Embedded Linux Consortium
    - [41]OLS Coverage
    
    Here is the [42]permanent site for this page.
    
    See also: [43]last week's LWN.
    
 Leading items and editorials
 
    This issue of LWN is dedicated to Scott Murray, a co-founder of the
    Linux Professional Institute and a vital force in its early success.
    Scott died as a result of illness about two weeks ago, though the word
    is just getting out now. You will be missed, Scott.
    
    gnucash 1.6 and the dependency nightmare. The release of gnucash 1.6
    was [44]announced on June 11. gnucash is an important application - it
    is the only free package which provides comprehensive personal and
    business finance functionality. Your editor has been using it for over
    a year, and has been anxiously waiting for it to catch up to what the
    commercial finance packages can do.
    
    From the release notes, the 1.6 release has gotten much closer to that
    goal; unfortunately, LWN is not, as yet, able to say more than that.
    You see, we have not yet been able to make it work on any of our
    systems.
    
    gnucash is perhaps the prime example of shared library dependency
    hell. The executable requires no less than 60 different shared
    libraries, all, of course, with the right version. Upgrading to GNOME
    1.4 addresses many of those dependencies, but not all of them. Dealing
    with the rest has proved tricky, even for people who are accustomed to
    this sort of problem.
    
    There is no criticism of gnucash intended here. The gnucash developers
    are trying to produce the best package they can by taking full
    advantage of the work that has been done by others. That is how
    component-oriented software development is supposed to work, after
    all. But there is an important point that is worth raising here.
    
    A program that needs 60 different libraries is depending on a very
    complicated software environment to support it. As of this writing,
    there is probably not a single distribution which, out of the box,
    provides that environment. Upgrading to that environment is helped by
    the various update services and tools that an increasing number of
    distributions are providing. It is worth asking, however, just how
    many of you would proceed with such an upgrade in confidence that it
    would work, and that nothing else would break?
    
    As the Linux software environment becomes more complex and powerful,
    it also risks becoming more brittle. The desktop will not be won as
    long as users must upgrade dozens of libraries, with a good
    possibility of breaking their systems, to get a new personal finance
    application. The desktop developers have a serious challenge ahead of
    them here: make the environment robust and easy to upgrade, or see the
    users wander away in frustration.
    
    (As an addendum, it's worth noting that the gnucash developers have
    plans to offer a CD with the application and all required libraries
    shortly).
    
    Linus is not accountable? We got a pointer this week to a white paper
    published by Microsoft entitled "Linux in Retail & Hospitality: What
    Every Retailer Should Know." It is [45]available from the Microsoft
    web site, but only in Word format. It contains a pretty serious
    copyright notice that prevents us from putting up a decrypted version,
    unfortunately.
    
    It is a worthwhile read. While the company's executives make people
    laugh by calling Linux "a cancer," this document dedicates a dozen
    pages to flat out Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. It even cites LWN
    editor Liz Coolbaugh as an expert on the number of distributions
    available, which, of course, is presented as a problem:
    
      Imagine how confusing it would be if Microsoft released 188
      versions of Windows and multiple versions of the GUI, each with a
      slightly different functionality? Wouldn't that be confusing?
      Wouldn't it be extremely difficult to run an enterprise solution
      with confidence about your future and return on investment in
      Microsoft products? That is the exact scenario that Linux is
      presently in by having so many distributions.
      
    You read it here: choice is bad.
    
    Rather than get into a point-by-point rebuttal, however, we would like
    to focus on one issue in particular:
    
      With everything being in Torvalds' hands, he is in total control
      over where the future of Linux goes. If he doesn't want a new
      retail feature do be included in the core operating system, it will
      not be included. Additionally, he doesn't have any accountability
      to the industry when the releases are delayed, if they do not work
      well, etc.
      
    One could have a lot of fun examining the degree of "accountability"
    shown by Microsoft when its releases are delayed, when they did not
    work well, etc. But that misses the point. The important thing to
    point out here is that Linus has, simultaneously, less control and
    more accountability than Microsoft would like its readers to believe.
    
    On the issue of control, it suffices to say that Linus' domain does
    not extend beyond the kernel. Most of what users see as "Linux" has
    very little to do with Linus; it is, instead, the responsibility of
    thousands of developers worldwide. In particular, almost anything seen
    as a "retail feature" is unlikely to involve him.
    
    Linus has a level of accountability that far surpasses anything
    Microsoft can claim: he can only lead where users and developers will
    follow. There is no structure that requires anybody to run or develop
    for his standard kernels; if he mismanages development, he may well
    find himself in charge of an obscure fork while the real activity goes
    elsewhere.
    
    For an example of how this can work, see the [46]the coverage of the
    device number debate in the May 17 LWN Kernel Page. When Linus made an
    unpopular decision, Alan Cox refused to follow him. As a result, many
    prominent distributions will probably include kernels that implement a
    policy different from that decreed by Linus.
    
    In fact, most of the major distributors employ high-profile kernel
    hackers, and almost all of them distribute kernels which have been
    modified in some way. They have, in other words, declined to follow
    Linus in situations where they feel that their users' needs call for
    something different. Thus, for example, SuSE users have had ReiserFS
    for some time, and Red Hat users had the current RAID implementation,
    even though the standard 2.2 kernel did not.
    
    This is one of the great powers that free software gives to its users:
    nobody can prevent them from incorporating whatever functionality or
    changes suit their needs. And it is the core of Linus' accountability.
    If he tries to take the kernel in the wrong direction, his user
    community will simply go around him. Proprietary software vendors
    generally lack that accountability, and their users suffer for it.
    
    The survey results are in. Thanks again to everybody who took the time
    to fill in the form. Here, for those who are interested, is a set of
    highlights from the results. There was much there that was interesting
    to us.
      * We got just over 3100 replies.
      * Most of you seem to like us - 94% said that they have the site
        bookmarked and come here regularly. The bulk of you come by once a
        week, but about 1/3 of the respondents said they hit the [47]Daily
        Updates Page every day.
      * People are generally happy with the content, with the Front,
        Kernel, and Security pages topping the list. The pages with the
        highest "dissatisfied" votes were On The Desktop and Commerce, at
        11% and 12%, respectively.
      * On the list of possible enhancements, the security incidents and
        updates database and detailed research reports came out on top.
        Two often-requested features - email delivery and a PDA version -
        were requested by less than half of the respondents; those who
        want those features, though, want them quite a bit. Comment
        posting came in at the bottom.
      * You are a very male group - 98.7%. There are almost as many women
        writing LWN as reading it. Most of you are between 25 and 35 years
        old. Almost all of our readers have at least some college
        education, with 38% having completed a graduate degree.
      * 41% of our readers live in the U.S, and 5.5% in Canada. Most of
        the remaining readers are European, with the U.K. and Germany
        topping the list. Almost every other country on the list (and a
        few that weren't - sorry) was represented, though; we have readers
        from Argentina to Zimbabwe.
      * Most of our readers are employed in technical positions, and most
        of them at smaller companies.
      * More of you run Intel systems than any other, which is not too
        surprising. But almost 30% of you have Alpha-based systems and 20%
        use PowerPC systems as well. 85% of you have Red Hat Linux around;
        all of the other distributions fall into the single digits, with
        one surprising exception: half of you claim to run Slackware on
        your networks.
      * 667 of you took the time to write in additional comments, and
        we've read every single one of them. Took a while. There were a
        few common themes that we found; even after we got past the most
        common type of comment, which was complaints about the survey
        itself. Yes, the survey could have been done a lot better; we
        apologize (again) for the problems.
        Beyond that, numerous people asked us not to change too much.
        Quite a few expressed hostility to the idea of comment posting,
        which came as a bit of a surprise; we had been considering adding
        such a feature. Gripes about the "On The Desktop" page were fairly
        common. We also saw a number of requests for expanded development
        coverage and a better organization for the software announcements
        pages.
        Some of you took us to task for excessive coverage of Red Hat on
        the distributions page. Others complained that we ignore Red Hat
        in favor of other, more obscure distributions.
        We were also surprised by a number of complaints about excessive
        commercial coverage. We operate in the belief that you can not
        really cover Linux and free software while ignoring the commercial
        sector; corporations, at this point, have a lot of influence over
        what happens. Numerous readers disagree, however.
        
    We're still digesting the results of the survey; there is a lot of
    information there. We would like to thank you all, one more time, for
    giving us a bit of your time. It will help us to create a better LWN
    for everybody.
    
    New LWN.net events calendar. The [48]LWN.net Linux Events Calendar has
    seen a much-needed, much-delayed major upgrade. The new, Zope-based
    calendar provides a more flexible interface, and the ability to filter
    events by type. And finally we've done something with that
    linuxcalendar.com domain name... Have a look, we hope you like it.
    
    Inside this week's Linux Weekly News:
      * [49]Security: Non-executable stack and heap implementations, new
        vulnerabilities in LPRng, xfs, gdm, xinetd, exim, fcron and
        TIAtunnel.
      * [50]Kernel: 2.4.6pre3; the limits of what modules can do; kernel
        data formats.
      * [51]Distributions: 217 Distributions and counting ...
      * [52]On the Desktop: Usability testing, GNUStep interview, and
        PalmOS updates.
      * [53]Development: GStreamer, Cplant cluster software, Ganymede 1.0,
        GVD 1.2.0, Open Source Legal Issues, APL for Linux.
      * [54]Commerce: TV Linux Alliance; 'LPI Certification in a Nutshell'
        from O'Reilly.
      * [55]History: Debian 1.1 was released 5 years ago; The "Open
        Source" trademark officially died 2 years ago.
      * [56]Letters: Licensing and security; naive economics; Linux's
        astrological sign.
        
    ...plus the usual array of reports, updates, and announcements.
    
    This Week's LWN was brought to you by:
      * [57]Jonathan Corbet, Executive Editor
      * [58]Elizabeth O. Coolbaugh, Managing Editor
      * [59]Michael J. Hammel, Senior Editor
        
    June 14, 2001
    
                               [60]Click Here 
    
                               [61]Click Here 
    
    
                                                        [62]Next: Security
    
    [63]Eklektix, Inc. Linux powered! Copyright Л 2001 [64]Eklektix, Inc.,
    all rights reserved
    Linux (R) is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds
 
 References
 
    1. http://lwn.net/
    2. http://ads.tucows.com/click.ng/pageid=001-012-132-000-000-001-000-000-012
    3. http://lwn.net/2001/0614/security.php3
    4. http://lwn.net/2001/0614/kernel.php3
    5. http://lwn.net/2001/0614/dists.php3
    6. http://lwn.net/2001/0614/desktop.php3
    7. http://lwn.net/2001/0614/devel.php3
    8. http://lwn.net/2001/0614/commerce.php3
    9. http://lwn.net/2001/0614/press.php3
   10. http://lwn.net/2001/0614/announce.php3
   11. http://lwn.net/2001/0614/history.php3
   12. http://lwn.net/2001/0614/letters.php3
   13. http://lwn.net/2001/0614/bigpage.php3
   14. http://lwn.net/daily/
   15. http://linuxcalendar.com/
   16. http://lwn.net/stocks/
   17. http://lwn.net/Reviews/
   18. http://lwn.net/Gallery/
   19. http://lwn.net/archives/
   20. http://lwn.net/op/headlines.phtml
   21. http://lwn.net/op/Contact.html
   22. http://linux.tucows.com/
   23. http://news.tucows.com/ext2/
   24. http://unixthemes.tucows.com/
   25. http://lwn.net/2001/features/MandrakeSoft.php3
   26. http://lwn.net/2001/features/KernelSummit/
   27. http://lwn.net/2001/features/Singapore
   28. http://lwn.net/2001/features/djbdns.php3
   29. http://lwn.net/2001/features/linuxworldny/
   30. http://lwn.net/2001/features/JHaas/
   31. http://lwn.net/2001/features/LarryWall/
   32. http://lwn.net/2001/features/Momjian/
   33. http://lwn.net/2000/features/Timeline/
   34. http://lwn.net/2000/features/ESR/
   35. http://lwn.net/2000/features/Comdex/index.php3
   36. http://lwn.net/2000/features/Comdex/RansomLove.php3
   37. http://lwn.net/2000/features/Guido.php3
   38. http://lwn.net/2000/features/PaulEveritt.php3
   39. http://lwn.net/2000/features/ESC/
   40. http://lwn.net/2000/features/ESC/ELC.php3
   41. http://lwn.net/2000/features/OLS/
   42. http://lwn.net/2001/0614/
   43. http://lwn.net/2001/0607/
   44. http://lwn.net/2001/0614/a/gnucash.php3
   45.
 http://www.microsoft.com/business/downloads/retail/linux_in_retail_and_hospitali
 ty.doc
   46. http://lwn.net/2001/0517/kernel.php3
   47. http://lwn.net/daily/
   48. http://linuxcalendar.com/
   49. http://lwn.net/2001/0614/security.php3
   50. http://lwn.net/2001/0614/kernel.php3
   51. http://lwn.net/2001/0614/dists.php3
   52. http://lwn.net/2001/0614/desktop.php3
   53. http://lwn.net/2001/0614/devel.php3
   54. http://lwn.net/2001/0614/commerce.php3
   55. http://lwn.net/2001/0614/history.php3
   56. http://lwn.net/2001/0614/letters.php3
   57. mailto:lwn@lwn.net
   58. mailto:lwn@lwn.net
   59. mailto:lwn@lwn.net
   60. http://ads.tucows.com/click.ng/buttonpos=lwnbutton125top
   61. http://ads.tucows.com/click.ng/buttonpos=125-001-016
   62. http://lwn.net/2001/0614/security.php3
   63. http://www.eklektix.com/
   64. http://www.eklektix.com/
 
 --- ifmail v.2.14.os7-aks1
  * Origin: Unknown (2:4615/71.10@fidonet)
 
 

Вернуться к списку тем, сортированных по: возрастание даты  уменьшение даты  тема  автор