How many GNU/Linux users are needed to change a light bulb? • Hacker News Board

Re: How many GNU/Linux users are needed to change a light bulb?

#81

Post by lights0123 » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 1:52 PM UTC

arderary wrote: post #79

1 to suggest replacing the lightbulb with systemd-lightd

Incorporate https://gitlab.com/CalcProgrammer1/OpenRGB into systemd when

Re: How many GNU/Linux users are needed to change a light bulb?

#82

Post by drran » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 2:04 PM UTC

exciteabletom wrote: post #18

ivalm wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grep, ls, bash, (g)awk, grub, gcc, make, gzip, tar, time, plotutils, gimp, gnome, emacs and many, many other things

I don't want to diminish rms and gnu's work in progressing software freedom and these programs are of course big contributions to a lot of Linux systems. However, I use i3 instead of gnome, systemd isn't a part of gnu, I also use Firefox instead of Epiphany. Should I refer to my system as gnu/i3/systemd/Mozilla/Linux? It's easier to refer to modular systems using the one guaranteed common element, in this case, the k…

Why not? Some variants of embedded Linux distros have graphic server (Wayland), init system, libc, and toolset (busybox), in their name. It's faster to sort out irrelevant ones.

Re: How many GNU/Linux users are needed to change a light bulb?

#83

Post by undebuggable » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 2:13 PM UTC

One can say it's old as the real problems started with the multicolor remote controlled LED lightbulbs.

Re: How many GNU/Linux users are needed to change a light bulb?

#84

Post by atomicnumber3 » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 2:15 PM UTC

fsflover wrote: post #64

caspper69 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are correct, it is not necessary to specify every major user-space program. But with GNU/Linux, GNU is the operating system. In fact, there have been Linux distros ported to run on *BSD kernels. It's more like this: the whole OS is GNU (the coreutils), minus the kernel (most of which is device drivers). That's why they do it. Or at least why there are those that are passionate about the naming. Also the reason wh…

You forgort to mention that the actual reason to call it GNU/Linux is not so much these technical details, but to attract attention to the GNU project and its fight for freedom (while Linux is just "open-source"). Upd: https://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html Quote: Granted that the GNU Project deserves credit for this work, is it really worth a fuss when people don't give credit? Isn't the important thing that the…

Tbh there’s also the growing real need to specify that you’re talking about a GNU userland. At this point it’s not very rare to see Busybox and the many others that exist mentioned while googling for things.

Re: How many GNU/Linux users are needed to change a light bulb?

#85

Post by MR4D » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 2:18 PM UTC

Two.

One to change it.

A second to tell the world that they are “GNU/Linux” lightbulb changers, not “Linux” lightbulb changers.

Re: How many GNU/Linux users are needed to change a light bulb?

#86

Post by swiley » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 2:19 PM UTC

scoutt wrote: post #73

1 to tell the user to file a super extensive bugzilla ticket backtracking all the history of the light bulb like on/off frequency, usage, etc. 1 who says they should rewire the entire house electrical wiring in Rust. 1 who says that more light bulbs can be found in the usual place: a drawer called /etc, or /usr, or /usr/local/, or /opt, or...

1 from the lamp maintenance company to say that this doesn't violate the lamp specifications and close the ticket.

Re: How many GNU/Linux users are needed to change a light bulb?

#87

Post by geocrasher » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 2:19 PM UTC

Only slightly worse than Amateur Radio guys having discussions about antennae!

Re: How many GNU/Linux users are needed to change a light bulb?

#88

Post by cheaprentalyeti » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 2:20 PM UTC

I remember back in the old days there was a whole stack of this sort of joke. It started with

"How many electrical engineers does it take to change a lightbulb?"

"We'll fix the problem in software!"

"How many software engineers does it take to change..."

All the way through to

"How many Microsoft executives does it take to change a lightbulb?"

"Darkness. The new standard from Microsoft!"

Bonus points for those who could work in a reference to Joseph Lucas, founder of Lucas Electric, aka The Prince of Darkness....

Re: How many GNU/Linux users are needed to change a light bulb?

#89

Post by clankyclanker » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 2:21 PM UTC

drran wrote: post #78

jankotek wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In IoT only one person is needed to change a light bulb. But it will take 7 days of soldering, debuging and reverse engineering :)

Clean room reverse engineering requires two.

Don’t forget the lawyer required to vet the process.

Re: How many GNU/Linux users are needed to change a light bulb?

#90

Post by darkwater » Thu, Dec 10, 2020, 2:24 PM UTC

makeworld wrote: post #80

sabon wrote: post #77

1298. The article doesn't answer how many, so I've counted. It takes 1298 GNU/Linux users to change a light bulb. Including the father of the first user, excluding the 6 that complained, and then complained again (they're counted only once). And also, assuming there's no overlap between all the groups, which is probably unrealistic.

So it takes 1299 then, if we include you.

1301, to be more precise.