I’m curious how software can be created and evolve over time. I’m afraid that at some point, we’ll realize there are issues with the software we’re using that can only be remedied by massive changes or a complete rewrite.
Are there any instances of this happening? Where something is designed with a flaw that doesn’t get realized until much later, necessitating scrapping the whole thing and starting from scratch?
Basically, install Linux on your daily driver, and hide your keyboard for a month. You’ll discover just what needs quality of life revising
The gatekeeping community
Can I keep a gate too and join the community?
Linux does this all the time.
ALSA -> Pulse -> Pipewire
Xorg -> Wayland
GNOME 2 -> GNOME 3
Every window manager, compositor, and DE
GIMP 2 -> GIMP 3
SysV init -> SystemD
OpenSSL -> BoringSSL
Twenty different kinds of package manager
Many shifts in popular software
BoringSSL is not a drop-in replacement for openssl though:
BoringSSL is a fork of OpenSSL that is designed to meet Google’s needs.
Although BoringSSL is an open source project, it is not intended for general use, as OpenSSL is. We don’t recommend that third parties depend upon it. Doing so is likely to be frustrating because there are no guarantees of API or ABI stability.
Not too relevant for desktop users but NFS.
No way people are actually setting it up with Kerberos Auth
100% this
We need a networked file system with real authentication and network encryption that’s trivial to set up and that is performant and that preserves unix-ness of the filesystem, meaning nothing weird like smb, so you can just use it as you would a local filesystem.
The OpenSSH of network filesystems basically.
Easy, Gimp.
