21–30 of 115 posts
"Linux, by contrast, has hundreds of APIs..." Wait, there's only one set of system calls into the kernel. What exactly are they talking about here, anyone know?
Kernel and user interfaceS
For example, are they counting libcurl in Linux's total? How about Gecko, WebKit, and KHTML?
As it stands, the statement sounds either wrong or indicative of a completely bizarre design on the Haiku peoples' part.
"Linux, by contrast, has hundreds of APIs..." Wait, there's only one set of system calls into the kernel. What exactly are they talking about here, anyone know?
Kernel and user interfaceS
"Linux, by contrast, has hundreds of APIs and about as many user interfaces, so you can’t just switch seamlessly from one version of Linux to another. The version you use can greatly alter the appearance of your computer screen, the way programs boot and execute, and various other things, all of which make it quite difficult to develop software that consistently runs well on all Linux systems."
That's a mix of true and false statements. The false is that UIs necessarily change by distro: Different distros pick different default UIs, but all of them can run all the same window managers and desktop environments. My telling you I'm currently running Ubuntu tells you nothing about how my screen currently looks.
Also, switching from one distro to another is hardly a difficult process; switching from one computer to another is more annoying.
It's true to some extent in that some distros ship with modified kernels, but that usually isn't a problem for anyone: The changes distros make tend to be invisible to most applications, which sit directly on higher-level APIs anyway.
Finally, implying having fewer APIs is a good thing is disingenuous: An API is a tool and, therefore, a way to organize thought; having fewer APIs implies artificial restrictions on thought.
As far as I understand the history of Linux, this is just plain not true: Linux was originally a toy project with little focus on either desktop or server systems.
Am I missing something?
I remember trying BeOS back in the days. It had a nifty feature where you could download an executable and install directly from inside windows, and then boot up in BeOS afterwards. I used to hang out at OSNews where OpenBeOS was heavily promoted and discussed when they started the project. Sure is a long time ago.
> Linux, for instance, is based around a core—called a kernel—that was originally designed for use in servers and only later modified for desktop systems As far as I understand the history of Linux, this is just plain not true: Linux was originally a toy project with little focus on either desktop or server systems. Am I missing something?
There has got to be a better open-source font than what Haiku is currently using (http://www.haiku-os.org/docs/userguide/en/deskbar.html).
> Linux, for instance, is based around a core—called a kernel—that was originally designed for use in servers and only later modified for desktop systems As far as I understand the history of Linux, this is just plain not true: Linux was originally a toy project with little focus on either desktop or server systems. Am I missing something?
I'm not sure what Linus' personal intentions were when he first started it, but perhaps the article is talking about the fact that Unix was originally developed for mainframes.
Of course nowadays Linux runs pretty well on IBM's mainframes.
The problem with open-source OS's is that they can't take advantage of things like attractive fonts for the user interface. There has got to be a better open-source font than what Haiku is currently using ( http://www.haiku-os.org/docs/userguide/en/deskbar.html ).
Interestingly much higher resolution displays will probably help to offset the need for rendering tricks
The problem with open-source OS's is that they can't take advantage of things like attractive fonts for the user interface. There has got to be a better open-source font than what Haiku is currently using ( http://www.haiku-os.org/docs/userguide/en/deskbar.html ).