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ZDNet reports that from supercomputers to stock markets to smartphones, Linux dominates most computing markets, but Linus Torvalds still wants Linux to rule on one place it doesn't: The desktop. "The challenge on the desktop is not a kernel problem. It's a whole infrastructure problem. I think we'll get there one day," said Torvalds at the LinuxCon Convention in Chicago. "Year of the Linux desktop?" asked Kroah-Hartman. "I'm not going there," replied Torvalds with a smile.
Torvalds also discussed the issue of kernel code bloat as Linux is now being run in small-form-factor embedded devices. "We've been bloating the kernel over the last 20 years, but hardware has grown faster," Torvalds said. Torvalds wants to push the envelope for the embedded market despite some challenges. He noted that some of the small-form-factor device vendors have their own operating system technologies in place already, and those vendors don't always make hardware readily available to Linux kernel developers.
The issue of Linux code maintainers was another hot-button topic addressed by Torvalds, who noted that some Linux kernel code has only a single maintainer and that can mean trouble when that maintainer wants to take time off. Torvalds said that a good setup that is now used by the x86 maintainers is to have multiple people maintaining the code. It's an approach that ARM Linux developers have recently embraced, as well. "When I used to do ARM merges, I wanted to shoot myself and take a few ARM developers with me," Torvalds said. "It's now much less painful and ARM developers are picking up the multiple maintainer approach."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Friday August 22 2014, @09:13PM
Linux is decent on old hardware, better than Windows, but hardly trouble free. This is a bit unfair to blame on Linux, but getting Flash to work is hard. I look forward to the day Flash dies in a fire, but until then, it's wanted so people can watch cat videos on Youtube.
Just today, I've been trying to set up a computer made in late 2002. It's a 2GHz Celeron, 32bit, with 768M RAM, and horrid Intel integrated graphics (845G). Been trying Tinycore Linux. Everything works except Flash. (And I count myself lucky at that. A previous time I set up a different computer that had old Intel integrated graphics, it would lock up after 15 minutes or an hour of use, just no telling. In that case, the solution was to use the VESA driver as the Intel driver at that time was known to cause hangs.) Flash ran but the graphics were corrupted, half the size of the window, with green and purple lines. This is a known problem, and the solution was to change XWindows from SNA acceleration to the older UXA. But that caused other problems because none of the supporting parts of UXA were present, so with UXA all I saw was a mouse pointer on a black screen.
Another troublesome old computer was an AMD based one. At least it had nice Radeon graphics. But, AMD was late in getting SSE2 into their chips, and that particular computer was among the last that lacked it. The newest version of Flash available for Linux requires SSE2, and will show a blank black window if the computer doesn't have it. The solution was to downgrade to the last version of Flash that doesn't require SSE2.
Then there was the 350MHz Pentium 2 with the very earliest NVidia graphics card that is still supported by Nouveau, a Riva TNT, code name NV04. It worked at first, but X was sending hundreds of error messages to the system logs every minute. The hard drive was running nonstop, and soon the system was thrashing, and slowed from molasses speed to glacial. (But, it would play video faster than a 1GHz Pentium 3 with Intel integrated graphics.) The maintainers knew immediately what the problem was, they just hadn't bothered to add some necessary software emulation to handle what the NV04 hardware lacks because no one was using NV04 until I came along and spoiled their fun. To their credit, they fixed it and I only had to wait a few weeks.
Ever tried to use an old serial port mouse or trackball in a modern distro? They aren't well supported any more. Even though the pieces may still all be there-- kernel drivers, Xorg drivers-- distros aren't bothering to pack it all up. The last time I tried it, I got nowhere.
That's a sampling of the sort of issues I run into when trying to get a little more life out of old computers.
(Score: 2) by cykros on Sunday August 24 2014, @07:45PM
This is a bit unfair to blame on Linux, but getting Flash to work is hard. I look forward to the day Flash dies in a fire, but until then, it's wanted so people can watch cat videos on Youtube.
Or they could use HTML5 [youtube.com]...
But yes, it is worth noting that while Youtube is no longer (and hasn't been for a few years now) an excuse for "needing" Flash, there are sites out there that still do rely on it. Some news sites, for instance, just don't have html5 support yet (though in many cases switching to an iOS useragent might bring pleasantly surprising results...).
I pity those who are still stuck in this limbo, but also figure it's worth pointing out that you might not be as stuck as you think you are...