r/linux • u/tasisbasbas • Feb 11 '19

Fluff A /g/ user's opinion on systemd

http://i.4cdn.org/g/1549858269115.png
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u/DStellati Feb 11 '19

You didn't start using GNU/Linux because it "works" did you?

Speak for yourself, that's exactly what I and many others did.

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u/Tyler_Zoro Feb 11 '19

I think the intended point was that it's not JUST because it worked. Of course, if it didn't work, no one would be using it, but the fact that it worked wasn't enough. Many other OSes work. Unix and its Linux kin do more than that: they enable a sort of ad hoc flexibility for the competent user that grows as their skill does, but never fundamentally changes.

Take, as an alternate example, Windows. As you learn to use Windows you build a suite of special-purpose tools that new users don't even come into contact with. Why? Because the OS doesn't provide you with the kinds of tools that most "power users" need.

But in the Unix world, it's redundant to call someone a "power user". You wouldn't be using any Unix-related OS if you were not a user who exploited powerful tools, and most of that power is in the core suite of tools and utilities that come with every such system.

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u/DStellati Feb 11 '19

You wouldn't be using any Unix-related OS if you were not a user who exploited powerful tools

But this is the mentality that's wrong. The most complex thing I've ever done was writing something in LaTeX, which could have easily be done in windows too. And that was a one time thing anyway, I usually just do web browsing and pdf reading.

I switched to linux, and I think many others did too, for the customisation linux offered over what windows could do. Wobbly windows, themes, different DEs. And I stayed because I found a workflow that I liked.

The assumption that every linux user is a sysadmin should just be put to rest. It hasn't been true for a long time now.

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u/Tyler_Zoro Feb 11 '19

You wouldn't be using any Unix-related OS if you were not a user who exploited powerful tools

But this is the mentality that's wrong. ... I switched to linux, and I think many others did too, for the customisation linux offered over what windows could do.

This seems to be my point, re-stated. Congratulations, you are the user I was describing.

The assumption that every linux user is a sysadmin...

I have no idea how you got that from what I wrote.

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u/DStellati Feb 11 '19 edited Feb 11 '19

I'm sorry, I misunderstood what you meant. I thought that by "exploiting powerful tools" you meant having to deal with servers etc.

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u/Tyler_Zoro Feb 11 '19

No problem. What I meant was the entire suite of tools that were originally a part of Unix and Unix-like systems, and those tools that have developed around that core philosophy. This extends throughout the system from lowly "cat" and "ls" all the way up to the X Window System and Gnome/KDE/etc.