Good work

Great work, big thanks! I hope that we will be winning this uphill battle for a long time!

Thank you.

I missed an important point that you should also do. In the /etc/pacman.conf file you can add an IgnorePkg just after IgnorePkg = systemd-libs like that:

IgnorePkg   = kuserfeedback

This will block the installation of this package and trace any addition of new KDE softwares with Telemetry

@ 4L1V3

You'r welcome on XMPP for a talk. :)

@ jean-michel, sorry to hear that you are unhappy. I've enjoyed your commentaries and contributions.

@ techore

I can not say that I'm 100% unhappy but Gnu Linux it is like a recipe where everyone can write it as best as possible but without ever cooking it to know what will be the flavor and when it's cooked by a cooker and the result is only a bland taste the answer is that he doesn't understand the beauty of this recipe :D

I'm really happy to use Gnu Linux, and still during a time, but I'm also really disappointed.

I wanted to continue the culinary metaphor by posing a genuine question: what if a team of chefs decided to make one set of food really, really well.

Or another way of putting it is - what if Obarun became a distro, aiming at - for example, just an idea - JUST desktop (32 bit and 64 bit most likely), JUST providing support for a handful of WM/DEs (e.g. the JWM/KDE/XFCE that are provided on oblive), and became the specialised kind of kitchen that Jean Michel is talking about?

And after that, choosing one app for each purpose - e.g. Deadbeef, MPV, etc. - and focusing all development on those apps and leaving all the other packages aside?

Wouldn't that make things easier?

Forgive me if I'm missing something or if I'm ignorant of some or all parts of the development process. I'm just thinking aloud :)

@ 4L1V3

In my opinion, the kitchen is the Linux kernel, and the first issue is that this kitchen contains industrial machine that we absolutely do not need to cook the food for our "desktop customers".

This is one of all the components in the Linux kernel:



This is what we need:

Sounds right up my street, JM.

I looked into the other OSes you mentioned and don't know how to properly evaluate how good they are. Most look a little complicated to install.

I am looking forward to the Hyperbola BSD when it launches

Hi jean-michel,

From up-thread, you shared some interesting thoughts.

Yes, that right and this is exactly what I said to Eric days ago during a private talk. Linux is going to be a 100% corporate OS and it will be the end of the Gnu and Linux as we known and in the hands of hackers. It's only the beginning and what will happen is that the hackers will move to an alternative, probably something like Sculpt-OS, Haiku or something else.

As a long-time Linux user, I am interested in learning about Obarun. However, would it be better to save my energy should Linux become unviable for hackers due to the corporations that control its future? In other words, how soon will the Linux corporations make it too difficult to pursue projects like Obarun? I do realize that you cannot predict the future. That said, I view your insights as valuable and would appreciate your feedback.

I look forward to anything that can be shared.

Hi jean-michel,

I watched the recommended talk by Timothy Roscoe from the 2021 OSDI conference regarding OS research and Heterogeneous operating systems. The speaker is an expert in this area and helped illuminate the current situation regarding hardware and operating systems.

https://youtu.be/36myc8wQhLo

In particular, it was noted that Linux, like other available operating systems, makes an assumption about the underlying computing hardware that is no longer true. The assumption is that the underlying hardware is Homogeneous and is a ccNUMA style architecture implemented in silicon. This assumption is based on a hardware perspective that dates from the 1980s and 1990s.

Mr. Roscoe makes clear that modern hardware is anything but such a simple architecture. He notes that modern silicon CPUs contain many different kinds of cores and include embedded operating systems that the "User" facing operating system has no knowledge of. We see these "System on Chip" (SOC) CPUs everywhere - ARM chips, Intel Chips, AMD Chips, etc.

This implication is startling since an end-user is left wondering what else is "running" on the hardware for which neither the OS (ex. Linux) nor the end-user has knowledge. In essence, what Mr. Roscoe is saying is that even the Linux OS is nothing more than a software abstraction layer masquerading as an Operating System since Linux is blind to what modern SOC CPUs are doing.

Based on your recommendation up-thread, I then went on to watch a talk by Norman Feske from the 2020 FOSDEM conference regarding the Sculpt OS.

https://youtu.be/vmgWgzeKAjU

I was duly impressed with what the Genode team has accomplished. The OS is Homogeneous in that it has a common toolchain, configuration, and architecture. The OS also leverages the benefits of micro-kernels to improve security through memory compartmentalization and virtualization. There is also the ability to customize, on a per-user / per-machine basis, the preferred OS components in use and their connectivity, as needed or desired by a particular use case or user preference. I have never seen this level of OS control and configuration in any other OS to date.

Despite all those benefits, Sculpt OS does not appear to address the more fundamental problem of Heterogeneous computing hardware raised by Mr. Roscoe i.e. embedded low-level hardware and hidden OSes running un-monitored on modern SOC CPUs.

Watching these video presentations leaves this "end-user" with the impression that any ability to own and control the computing environment is hopeless. If that conclusion is essentially correct, what can "end-users" do to protect themselves and their computing environment? Is the best that "end-users" can aspire to is a Sculpt-like OS with full knowledge that unknown other processes and activities are lurking within their SOC CPU computing devices? And finally, one wonders if it is truly time to leave the safety and security illusion of Linux and other 'nixes far behind?

Your thoughts are appreciated.

Hello tuxman.

I read your comments but I do not have the time for now to build a relevant and properly constructed answer. I'm thinking about it because there is a lot to say.