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Canonical is betting on there being people who want to run some Linux exclusive software but don't care about idealism. Edit: In hindsight I think this comment

by im3w1l 6y ago

Canonical is betting on there being people who want to run some Linux exclusive software but don't care about idealism. Edit: In hindsight I think this comment was too cynical. I like canonical mostly.

ColanR 6y ago
That's the wrong bet to make, because those are the people that will end up using the Microsoft WSL. From what I can tell, the problems with Canonical will sort themselves out when the market they've created for themselves is eaten by Microsoft's incorporation of Linux into Windows. The only people left using 'pure' Linux/Unix will be those who care about quality software, FOSS, and privacy. I hope that day comes sooner than later.
- freeone3000 6y ago
  Canonical is the #1 distributor of Linux on Windows. It seems to fill that niche perfectly.
the_af 6y ago
> run some Linux exclusive software Like what? I run Linux because I want control of my computer. The minute a distro starts gatekeeping, the moment I switch to a different distro. Increasingly, you can run Linux software on non-Linux OSes, if a piece of software is all you care about.
- umanwizard 6y ago
  Docker is the most major example I can think of of something that only runs on Linux.
  - Google234 6y ago
    And Mac
    - umanwizard 6y ago
      Not natively. Docker for Mac is a thing, yes, but it’s just a wrapper around a Linux VM.
      - the_af 6y ago
        Ultimately, you can run Docker on a VM for local development, and of course you'll run it on a Linux server on production. But you don't need Canonical gatekeeping for that...
        umanwizard 6y ago
        You can, but it's annoying enough that I switched to Linux at work, even though I prefer macOS as a user.
        the_af 6y ago
        Interesting. I'm a fulltime Linux user, but wanted to try a macbook for my current job so they gave me one. I still haven't done any serious work with docker, but people tell me it runs like molasses on mac. Is that your experience? If so, I might want to switch back to Linux.
        umanwizard 6y ago
        My main annoyances are: * It is slower (might not matter depending on your workload). * It requires manual tuning to set the correct RAM limit (whereas Docker containers on Linux are just normal processes so they just use however much RAM they need like any other process). * It's difficult to use the normal administration tools you're familiar with: you can't, from the host, see containers running in top, or attach a debugger to them. You have to either open a shell in the container and install all the typical GNU/Linux tools there, or have some weird remote debugging setup.

by im3w1l 6y ago

ColanR 6y ago

That's the wrong bet to make, because those are the people that will end up using the Microsoft WSL. From what I can tell, the problems with Canonical will sort themselves out when the market they've created for themselves is eaten by Microsoft's incorporation of Linux into Windows. The only people left using 'pure' Linux/Unix will be those who care about quality software, FOSS, and privacy. I hope that day comes sooner than later.

freeone3000 6y ago
Canonical is the #1 distributor of Linux on Windows. It seems to fill that niche perfectly.

the_af 6y ago

> run some Linux exclusive software Like what? I run Linux because I want control of my computer. The minute a distro starts gatekeeping, the moment I switch to a different distro. Increasingly, you can run Linux software on non-Linux OSes, if a piece of software is all you care about.

umanwizard 6y ago
Docker is the most major example I can think of of something that only runs on Linux.
- Google234 6y ago
  And Mac
  - umanwizard 6y ago
    Not natively. Docker for Mac is a thing, yes, but it’s just a wrapper around a Linux VM.
    - the_af 6y ago
      Ultimately, you can run Docker on a VM for local development, and of course you'll run it on a Linux server on production. But you don't need Canonical gatekeeping for that...
      - umanwizard 6y ago
        You can, but it's annoying enough that I switched to Linux at work, even though I prefer macOS as a user.
        the_af 6y ago
        Interesting. I'm a fulltime Linux user, but wanted to try a macbook for my current job so they gave me one. I still haven't done any serious work with docker, but people tell me it runs like molasses on mac. Is that your experience? If so, I might want to switch back to Linux.
        umanwizard 6y ago
        My main annoyances are: * It is slower (might not matter depending on your workload). * It requires manual tuning to set the correct RAM limit (whereas Docker containers on Linux are just normal processes so they just use however much RAM they need like any other process). * It's difficult to use the normal administration tools you're familiar with: you can't, from the host, see containers running in top, or attach a debugger to them. You have to either open a shell in the container and install all the typical GNU/Linux tools there, or have some weird remote debugging setup.