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posted by LaminatorX on Friday August 22 2014, @06:52AM   Printer-friendly
from the Next-year-in-Jerusalem dept.

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."

 
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  • (Score: 2) by cykros on Sunday August 24 2014, @07:45PM

    by cykros (989) on Sunday August 24 2014, @07:45PM (#85044)

    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...

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