(18-03-2019, 12:44 PM)Igrom Wrote: I understand your complaint about bloat in systemd and imagine that, for advanced, lower-level system tinkerers that bloat is synonymous with a lack of modularity and (re)composability.

... while computer novices are basically doomed to have a system with random start/stop errors and generally weird behavior in strange corners of the system - and they don't even have the choice to replace the erroneous parts of the system anymore. Or is there a Ubuntu version with runit instead of systemd?

But systemd was only one example for the hostility towards the UNIX philosophy. I thought you liked it as well, so I was wondering why you chose Linux instead.

(18-03-2019, 12:44 PM)Igrom Wrote: At the same time, I have heard complaints about extraneous switches in core tools (cat -v considered harmful).

My favorite comparison is the true command: It had a size of 0 bytes on UNIX (it basically spawned a shell and returned a success doing so), it has 80 lines in today's GNU system and even includes the false command. And a --version parameter (if "true" ever will be changed to "quux" or something?). And a --help parameter (if you don't know how to use true ... sane operating systems have manpages for that, just saying).

(18-03-2019, 12:44 PM)Igrom Wrote: By using this subset, it seems to me that I can have that elusive fruit without moving to a different system.

It is not a proper subset. GNU sed's -i parameter behaves very differently from (e.g.) macOS sed's. Which one does the right thing? Do you know without looking up the manual? Which one would you target if you write shell scripts for a living and why?

(18-03-2019, 12:44 PM)Igrom Wrote: Do you have in mind an anecdote where that other operating system enabled you to do more than you could have readily done on Linux?

FreeBSD gave me native ZFS (also available on illumos, of course).

(18-03-2019, 12:44 PM)Igrom Wrote: I'm okay with moving away from Linux if I am constrained by it.

I can't decide for you if Linux constrains you. If it does what you want it to, there is no much reason to move on. The grass is always greener on the other side though.

(18-03-2019, 12:44 PM)Igrom Wrote: When you are disappointed in Linux, is it because of superior theoretical possibilities on other operating systems, historic difficulties with realizing tasks on Linux, or both?

The childish community annoys me (as if "it's not Windows" was enough reason to choose an operating system...), the init wars (systemd vs. runit vs. SysV init vs. whatever) are the new editor wars and just as destructive, the license does not cater my taste and the slowly increasing influence of anti-male feminists shows that they probably don't even want me as a user. (I left FreeBSD for the same reason though. If you're curious, browse the 2018 web about "code of conduct"s.) The atrocities of the GNU "ecosystem" which implicitly promotes itself as anti-POSIX are only the icing on the cake to me.

(18-03-2019, 12:44 PM)Igrom Wrote: I consider free superior, but am myself okay with using a proprietary piece of code if I cannot work around it.

A computer is a tool. I haven't really studied the source code of any of my daily applications in years - because why would I want to?