On 8 October 2017 at 17:43, Marko Rauhamaa <ma...@pacujo.net> wrote: > It is not at all easy for the Linux user to figure out what > configuration options there are, and which ones are intended for > end-user configuration. More and more, such tuning needs to be > done via systemd unit files (or applicable GUI facilities) and the > classical configuration files are deprecated. For example, how can a > programmer get a core file of a crashing program? Why, you need to use > the systemd-coredump service, of course:
One of the things I liked about Debian many years ago when I played with Linux (when the options available were Debian, Red Hat, Slackware and SuSE and that was about it) was that they typically "fixed" the defaults of programs in the build options, so that there were almost no config files in the default install. That made it pretty easy for a user - you just set any extra options you want. With the other distros, they tended to make changes via config files, which was probably more transparent and easier to understand, but meant that a naive user like me couldn't tell what I was "allowed" to change (and by "allowed" I don't mean permission, more "if I change this, will I end up spending days trying to work out what weird interaction with other tools'expectations I just broke"). Sadly, those simpler days are long gone, and nowadays all Linux distros as far as I can see have a mass of predefined config (and the inevitable "config manager" tools to manage them). Not that I can complain about this, as a Windows user, but I do have fond memories of those simpler times :-) Obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/297/ Paul -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list