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Looks interesting, and generally always like to see how someone puts a new distro together, but “simple” here is a very specific definition of simple. This is
by alexwasserman 5y ago
Looks interesting, and generally always like to see how someone puts a new distro together, but “simple” here is a very specific definition of simple.
This is not a trivial, easy, type of simple.
Rather a raw and uncomplex simple.
Not going to assume either is better, but somewhat curious which people default to assuming and/or preferring.
- fouc 5y ago"less is more" doesn't imply trivial/easy, instead it implies that tradeoffs were carefully considered and made.
- admax88q 5y ago"Simplicity" does imple trivial or easy though, at least to an extent.
- alexwasserman 5y agoYes, I think that’s how I first read the headline - closer to a basic easy to use distro than an LFS style roll-your-own. If I told someone I’d found a simple distro, I wouldn’t expect them to prep to compile their own kernel
- scbrg 5y agoWell, blame English. It sucks (and so do all other natural languages). In software, I'd say that "simple" has come to mean "lack of complexity" rather than "easy". Presumably, the distribution's target audience is software enthusiasts of some sort.
- admax88q 5y agoI dunno I still disagree. If someone gave me a "simple" API for say networking. I would expect the API to be easy to use. But by your definition, I could give you an API such as "write(byte[])" which just puts bytes on the ethernet wire or into on the wifi radio. It's simple! It's not complex, there's only one API method with only one argument! But in reality, I'm just shifting complexity to the user. I only consider things simple if they truly reduce complexity rather than if they just shift the complexity to someone else.
- mro_name 5y agoI also never thought easy and simple being synonyms – uncomplex resonates well, however.
- SahAssar 5y agoA simple system is not the same as a system that is simple to use. The latter is often described as "easy" rather than "simple" in the development circles I've been in (and I think is also the way rich hickey said it in his "simple made easy" talk that popularized the difference).