[Discuss] Boot issues

[Steve Litt]

On Thu, 19 May 2016 12:00:56 -0500
Derek Martin <invalid at pizzashack.org> wrote:

> On Tue, May 17, 2016 at 07:35:16PM -0400, Jerry Feldman wrote:
> > > [...] So as a result I mostly just learn to use whatever they
> > > ship, as it's configured, except for perhaps a few default
> > > behaviors that really drive me crazy (whatever they might be, for
> > > that particular software release). :(
> > >
> > > One example: getting gnome-keyring to stop trying to manage my ssh
> > > agent.  I keep having to learn new ways to make that happen, and
> > > some gnome/xfce/whatever developer keeps breaking them.  If I'm
> > > being honest, for a long while now I've considered Gnome and its
> > > developers to be a blight.  
> > >  
> > There are a lot of alternatives to Gnome.  
> 
> For sure, but gnome is pervasive.  Other packagers of software often
> expect or even require at least pieces of it to be present. 

There's a word for that: Vendor Lock-in. It's nothing new: IBM in the
60's and 70's, Microsoft in the 80's thru today. Remember the
Halloween code that checked for MSDOS competitor DRDOS, and threw an
error for no other reason than to limit user options?.

> As an
> example, XFCE is hard-coded to use gnome-keyring under some
> circumstances (i.e.  by default):
> 
>   http://askubuntu.com/questions/412793/xubuntu-stop-gnome-keyring-daemon-from-impersonating-ssh-agent

This is a spectacular reason to quit using Xfce. How long before Xfce
will get even deeper in your business, requiring you to select certain
software? Big, entangled software? Software that materially slows and
brittles your operating system?

Benjamin Franklin said "Those who surrender freedom for security will
not have, nor do they deserve, either one." Perhaps he was talking
about Xfce's increasingly close connection to software some people might
not want to put on their computers.

If Ben were alive today, I'm sure he'd have long ago replaced his Xfce
with LXDE, and if LXDE goes to the dark side, he'd have moved to
Openbox, and if Openbox develops dependencies into gigantic, monolithic
software, he'd have moved to dwm or JWM or the like. Ben would know
it's not easy, it requires some amount of thought and work. But Ben
prioritizes that thought and work as much less painful than ever
receiving "the offer you can't refuse."

SteveT

Steve Litt 
May 2016 featured book: Rapid Learning for the 21st Century
http://www.troubleshooters.com/rl21