[kwlug-disc] What is all this about systemd?

[Khalid Baheyeldin]

On Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 10:48 PM, Chris Irwin <chris at chrisirwin.ca> wrote:

>  Getting apps on android: google-play, fdroid, whatever. All use the same
> apk packages, and those packages work on any android phone or tablet,
> whether it's a samsung note running touchwizified android 2.3 or a nexus 10
> running stock 4.4. When there's an update, you don't have to wait for the
> next version of Android, or for a community packager. You get updates
> straight from the developer, through whatever channel you used to install
> it.
>

But the comparison with Google/Android is not correct, unless Lennart wants
his approach to evolve into RedHat controlling the store (like others have
pointed out).

For Android, there is one company that controls the API. It is not
community driven.

Also, the vast majority of Android apps are written for a virtual machine
(Java/Dalvik). The developer, be they a one man part time thing, or a large
corporation, compile the app and upload the file and that is it.

There is no dealing with various CPU architectures, and there are no
libraries to deal with. Nor there is configure scripts, complex makefiles,
install scripts, ...etc.

For any Linux, there is x86 (64 and 32), ARM, MIPS, ...etc target to
compile for, and there are dependencies/libraries to deal with. The person
who creates the app relies on providing packaging templates to the distro
and the build servers take care of the multi-arch and dependency stuff.

A central repository of freely available software works for Linux, such as
Debian/Ubuntu and even for custom niche distros like OpenWRT. No dependency
issues, and multi-arch support.

Even with Ubuntu, they provide a "partner" repository, where commercial
software can live, with vendors uploading their packages. So, there is a
way of directly

I have that in /etc/apt/sources.list as

deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu trusty partner

When you install an app, you're getting the *current* version, *from the
> developers*. It tells you what permissions it needs. It's restricted to
> those  permissions. There is functionality to individually allow/deny
> access levels, but for some reason isn't exposed on android. You can try
> out new apps from new developers on the day they're shipped if so desired.
> Their package can't accidentally have an `rm -rf / tmp/myfiles` in a
> post-install script.
>

Yeah, that is a benefit that Android has going for it. Because they decided
to create their own Dalvik format running on a bare kernel with a
proprietary UI (much like Mac OS/X is a kernel + proprietary UI +
proprietary package format).

They created a platform and they control it. This is not the way it is in
the open/free universe though, for good or ill.

If we left it for individual developers to provide final installable
archives on Linux, it will be against whatever versions of libraries they
happen to have on their machines at the time, and all hell will break
loose. That is why we have build servers, whether for free software
projects, or corporations who create software.


> But having distro-agnostic bundles sounds great to me for some software,
>

Would be nice to have distro-neutral packaging. Would be nice to install
the Mac OS/X way by merely copying stuff to a directory too.

But we are not there yet, and what is being proposed is the wrong solution,
using the wrong technology (file system).

-- 
Khalid M. Baheyeldin
2bits.com, Inc.
Fast Reliable Drupal
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Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. --  Edsger W.Dijkstra
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. --   Leonardo da Vinci
For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple, and
wrong." -- H.L. Mencken
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