The monoculture of meritocracy [LWN.net]

The monoculture of meritocracy

Posted Nov 14, 2012 9:45 UTC (Wed) by ortalo (subscriber, #4654)
In reply to: The monoculture of meritocracy by dlang
Parent article: Crowding out OpenBSD

IMHO, the Linux monoculture prevents sometimes from adressing specific problem areas (at least it slows down things enough to miss the target).
Linux is not yet totally ubiquitous - the most recent example is the Android "port" (which involved a lot of domain specific hacks). It will probably never be because it's probably impossible - nothing wrong per se by the way, it has already gone a long way towards the general usefulness goal.

But some areas may benefit from the immediate availability of an alternate (possibly less versatile) free software solution: security box, wifi boxes, GSM phones (look at the "OS" selected for OsmocomBB), home automation devices, networking equipment; possibly: supercomputers, industrial control systems, industrial embedded systems, etc. [1]
Personal computing devices are not the only computers in modern information technology, they may not even be the most important ones - even if they are surely the most *numerous*. (What would you miss more: your smartphone, or your bank central computer?)
IMO, the BSDs should be seen as an opportunity to adress some of those specific concerns that necessitates a full OS too [4]. BSDs developpers seemed to agree as they initially selected some specific target (security, x86 perf., portability, distributed systems). However, up to now, maybe those projects primarily did that by themselves for differenciation or branding purposes [2] while they should be given true opportunities to aim an important target.
And specifically, Linux should *stop* claiming these targets (because they are for the BSDs).

Sounds like political movements are needed: bringing up an alliance between all the "freedom" partners should be on the table, with the objective of settling on a long lasting treaty. It seems to me that this is necessary to refuel some allies again, up to the task.

[1] IIRC, sometime in the 90s, the Fermi lab linear accelerator needed an OS for a VAX. Only a BSD fitted there seriously. That's a single computer in production, but well... only two such scientific equipements have ever been built in human history (Fermi Lab and CERN) so... point gained.
At some point in time, it seemed like OpenBSD was targetting the specific area of an intra-network OS (highly secure, IP/TCP but also BGP, OSPF, NTP, etc.), but I suppose Linux claimed that target too.
[2] Possibly not DragonflyBSD ;-)
[3] I mean, do you really trust Cisco or Huawei to transport your packets on wire? Or Apple and Google your packets in air? Whatabout transporting yourself?
[4] But not as full as Linux...

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The monoculture of meritocracy

Posted Nov 14, 2012 14:42 UTC (Wed) by ortalo (subscriber, #4654) [Link]

I was speaking of Android modifications only to illustrate the fact that there are no totally ubiquitous OS (or kernel in that case). Alternatives *may* have been a better base.

A BSD was not even considered for projects like Openmoko [1]. They are still not considered for the FreedomBox project even though they share obvious concerns with one of them.
This is in my view a consequence of the Linux domination. With even wider domination, we will see bigger consequences. (Such as: no Linux => no graphics.)

Of course I cannot guess what would have occured for these projects if a BSD had been given a try and if these projects would have been more successful.

[1] However, it seems to me that the BSDs should have been interesting candidates for a smartphone (full networked OS in a single source tree, focus on maintainability, etc.).

The monoculture of meritocracy

Posted Nov 15, 2012 16:59 UTC (Thu) by pboddie (subscriber, #50784) [Link]

The issue of which platform to use is mostly concerned with what most of the potential contributors are likely to know and which platform is covered best by most of the available documentation and shared knowledge, so if it's easier to find people who know how to write a Linux driver for some hardware, then a project will choose Linux first and foremost. That hasn't stopped other operating systems being ported to such devices, though:

http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Category:Distributions

And it's perfectly possible that other platforms can take advantage of the work done by Linux developers to get driver support for hardware even if they refuse to port the actual drivers. I'm aware of at least one "from scratch" operating system project for the Ben NanoNote that has presumably been able to take advantage of the fully documented hardware and Free Software drivers already written for Linux, so it's not as if the Linux community is denying others opportunities. In fact, it's very much the opposite of that.

The monoculture of meritocracy

Posted Nov 16, 2012 8:35 UTC (Fri) by ortalo (subscriber, #4654) [Link]

I totally agree with the importance of knowledge you outline.

However, I also think alternative OS do not take so much advantage of Linux work (or cooperation) as they suffer from the fact of being considered second class or second hand implementation (and not the full solution, i.e. "maybe better than Linux").

BSD for a smartphone OS

Posted Nov 16, 2012 10:11 UTC (Fri) by pboddie (subscriber, #50784) [Link]

Actually, isn't the OS for at least one of the Danger products based on BSD? According to the Wikipedia entry for the Danger Hiptop/Sidekick, they supposedly use NetBSD. Of course, vendors don't have to do anything more than reproduce licensing information for such permissively licensed software, and maybe only in obscure places even then, and so the awareness of a technology in the industry never reaches a point where everyone wants to try it out.

Some people praise permissive licensing and may refer to software licensed in such a way as their "secret weapon" or "competitive advantage", but if they're not willing to share their changes, any wider growth of such technologies is likely to lag behind things like Linux where there is a requirement to share and a resulting culture that does so extensively.

The monoculture of meritocracy

Posted Nov 24, 2012 22:02 UTC (Sat) by mfedyk (guest, #55303) [Link]

I think we should call this initiative "no os left behind".

Unions for the developers would be good too.

The monoculture of set theory

Posted Nov 24, 2012 22:28 UTC (Sat) by neilbrown (subscriber, #359) [Link]

> Unions for the developers would be good too.

I prefer intersections. They let you work together without forcing you to.

The monoculture of set theory

Posted Nov 25, 2012 3:50 UTC (Sun) by Trelane (subscriber, #56877) [Link]

Personally, I prefer complements. Because I'm a contrarian.