A common Linux program (systemd) has a bug that causes it to delete all your files. Lead developer of the project doesn't see what the big deal is.

68  2017-04-18 by qTimes2

46 comments

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He locked the issue when he was called out. What a dick

This is nothing. A few years ago when the Debian project was deciding what init system to use (they decided on systemd) there was a months long flamewar on their mailing lists. At some point there was some lunatic who was literally inciting violence towards systemd and Lennart supporters.

At least a month? The flame war rages on to this very day.

Some background:

  • systemd is an init system for Linux-based operating systems. Basically, it's the first program that's run when your computer boots up that launches all the other services that make your computer useful.
  • Stability of init systems is crucial, since if they crash the rest of the computer comes crashing down with them. Because of this, init systems have traditionally been very small and focused on doing their one job very well.
  • systemd throws all this out the window. If you look up "scope creep" in an encyclopedia, you'll find an article about systemd. The lead developer of systemd, Lennart Poettering, has a raging case of NIH syndrome and spends all his time rewriting existing software as systemd modules instead of just integrating and supporting the pre-existing solutions.
  • systemd has established itself as the most common init system in the Linux world by becoming dependency of many user-space programs, causing distribution maintainers to throw up their hands and ship is as the default since everyone will end up installing it anyway alongside the software they actually want to use. Lennart learned this trick back when he was a PulseAudio developer, and perfected it with systemd.
  • All of this have made Lennart and systemd very unpopular, but there's not much anyone can do about them because they've already dug themselves into the Linux ecosystem, like ticks.

systemd has established itself as the most common init system ... All of this have made Lennart and systemd very unpopular, but there's not much anyone can do about them because they've already dug themselves into the Linux ecosystem like ticks.

It's not unpopular, it's actually very popular, and the popularity contributes to the production of haters.

But, I'd just like to interject for moment. What you're refering to as Linux, is in fact, systemd/GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, systemd times GNU pus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning systemd/GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, systemd utilities and vital systemd components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the systemd/GNU operating system: the whole system is basically systemd crossed with GNU with Linux added, or systemd/GNU/Linux. Almost all the so-called Linux distributions are really distributions of systemd/GNU/Linux!

im gonna shove you in a fucking locker

What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little proprietary bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the FSF, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Apple patents, and I have over 300 confirmed bug fixes. I am trained in Free Software Evangelizing and I'm the top code contributer for the entire GNU HURD. You are nothing to me but just another compile time error. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am building a GUI using GTK+ and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can decompile you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my Model M. Not only am I extensively trained in EMACS, but I have access to the entire arsenal of LISP functions and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit Freedom all over you and you will drown in it.

B-

It's elisp

Doesn't elisp contain "the entire arsenal of LISP functions"?

I imagine not since they have been porting elisp to guile for a while.

That was good

wow this

Fuck off back to /g/

Still using half-chan

8chan is full of commies or retards who think gamergate is still relevant so I'll pass

Please tell me this is a copypasta?

Don't think it's a copypasta but rather a play on how Richard Stallman (guy who leads the free as in freedom software movement) used to always talk about Linux.

He's given up on it now, but he used to always comment on how "Linux" was really "GNU plus Linux" whenever people mentioned the OS, since technically it is called "GNU/Linux".

No, technically it is called Linux.

Im p sure he has not given up on correcting people, its still in his rider

It isn't popular - its just that almost all of the distros in existence have shoved it down our throats, so we're stuck with it.

S..Stallman-kin?!

When I first became with the Linux kernel, I didn't see what all the fuss over systemd was about. However, the more I learn about Poettering, the more I dislike it. It will be hilarious to watch the shit storm this causes. I don't think there was anything definitively wrong with systemd (from a purely operative standpoint rather than a design standpoint), at least not as bad as this.

has a raging case of NIH syndrome and spends all his time rewriting existing software as systemd modules instead of just integrating and supporting the pre-existing solutions

I don't know what pre-existing solutions you're referring to specifically, but I don't think this wouldn't really work for kernel development. Licensing issues aside, tying in outside dependencies to the kernel strikes me as a bad idea for both development and support.

I wonder (((who))) could be behind systemd.

nerd

thanks for the background OP, this is actually pretty hilarious stuff...

http://www.zdnet.com/article/lennart-poetterings-linus-torvalds-rant/

"But what I find particularly appalling is the fact that he regularly defends this, and advertises this as an efficient way to run a community. (But it is not just Linus, it's a certain group of people around him who use the exact same style, some of which semi-publicly even phantasize [sic] about the best ways to, ... well, kill me)."

Lol, Steven Colbert should've had him on to discuss cyberbullying.

Poettering called out Linus's extreme-toxicity-handwavingly-justified-as-management-style?

wtf I like systemd now

At this point I wouldn't be surprised if some crazy fanatical autist assassinated Poetering for what he's done tbh. It's actually quite amazing how one guy has been able to destroy linux so much, systemd and puleaudio are some of the worst cancers in software history, and they're becoming near inescapable, Gentoo is our last stand.

You are autistic enough to use Gentoo?

I AM

Gentoo really doesn't have that many autistic incantations, it's just highly configurable. Arch Linux, however, is highly autistic.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/installation_guide

Autism is expecting users to implicitly know and understand errors with no background.

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:AMD64/Full/Installation

It's neurotypical to expect that your users will probably want to understand what is going on when they install Linux.

Autism is expecting anyone to be able to use either of those guides with no working operating system.

Know what I did to install my OS? I burned it to a DVD and then rebooted my system with the DVD in the drive. Then I followed the simple on-screen prompts.

Gentoocide when?

I wouldn't recommend trying. If gentoo can't destroy them, nothing can.

He looks down on Linux from Scratch users.

our last stand.

No. There is still BSD.

Also Slackware, Devuan, and Void.

And plan 9 and 9front....

I don't see what the big deal here is, either. Your data randomly exploding is what's naturally going to occur when the only human beings the lead dev of a major project is accountable to are angry randos telling him to kill himself on the Internet; you're going to get the level of service and support that you paid for. This is what happens when you don't pay for things like WinRAR.

Oh, Jesus fucking Christ. This is going to go nuclear. There are already a bunch of Linux fanatics that hate Systemd because it eschews the Unix philosophy.

GNU/systemd when?

fuck off queer

we have The Shepherd you fucking cuck https://www.gnu.org/software/shepherd/

yea, like you totally have hurd

i literally jack off to richard stallman while installing guixsd

Lennart is great. He manages to piss off so many people in the linux community it's ridiculous. I always enjoy whenever people get riled up over some bullshit like this.

Lamers, I put my init=/dev/snd/mic in GRUB and scream my init data directly into microphone.

fucking kek

Oh boy I am starting to miss Ubuntu having its own case of NIH

systemd drama is always fire