On 02/11/10 08:45, Natalie Hooper wrote:
Just wondering if any of you read Linux Format's "24 Things we'd change
about Linux" (issue 137) and what your thoughts were? It got me thinking
about what I'd like to see changed in Linux so I wrote a blog post about it
(see link below).
http://cogitas.net/blog/2010/11/01/10-things-id-change-in-linux/
I'd like to know your thoughts about this, what you agree/disagree with,
what you would add etc.
(Copy of comment posted to blog.)
I'm suprised no-one mentioned the XDG specifications around item #2.
http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html
This specifies that there should be three base locations for apps to use
- one for user data, one for user configuration, and one for temporary
data like caches and thumbnails. Currently they default to
~/.local/share , ~/.config and ~/.cache respectively although they can
be pointed elsewhere.
The trouble is that not all apps adhere to this yet. Those that don't
tend to stick with the ~/.$appname convention. That has the advantage
of simplicity. The nice thing about the XDG spec is that it gives you a
clear separation between application data, config and cache which is
useful for backing up, upgrading, syncing between machines, etc.
This is a good micro example of the larger issue here in that it's an
example of what is good and bad about Linux and FOSS. The Free Desktop
Group doesn't mandate anything. They host some projects themselves, but
otherwise they produce recommendations and suggested standards. Often
these are driven by one or more distros, and so they get taken up, but
often they don't. Some of their output is very good, some is pretty
bad, and a lot of it lacks good documentation. Sometimes the "designed
by committee" effect is in evidence. However, mostly, the rough edges
get smoothed out, the bad stuff gets ignored or deprecated, the OK stuff
works and serves a purpose and is eventually replaced. Take a wide
enough view and the end result is largely good and improving with time,
despite the many hiccups.
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