> In message <Pine.LNX.4.00.9807190837430.13035-100000@stoli.spirits.org.au>, Nat
> han Hand wrote:
>
> } <THOUGHT TYPE="personal" METHOD="soapbox">
> } Linux can't afford to be a research project, it can only just afford
> } to keep up with UNIX. It is hard enough to code an API which already
> } exists - making it small and fast and stable and clean - without the
> } extra burden of trying to *invent* an API at the same time.
> } </THOUGHT>
>
> Linux is almost exclusively a volunteer effort, and can "afford" to be
> whatever the people doing the work want it to be.
Sorry, I didn't mean that to sound like an order. If there's one thing
I really can't stand, it's self-proclaimed "managers" of Linux, who're
convinced that they should be running the show and giving orders.
What I meant to say, while on my soapbox, is that it's difficult to be
a good UNIX, but it is far *more* difficult to be something completely
different, or to completely replace a major UNIX-ism (like setuid).
If somebody *wants* to write code to replace UNIX-isms, and turn Linux
into a non-UNIX, then I'm all for it. My thoughts simply are that it's
a big chore, and in this case it's quite difficult to justify.
Saying "setuid/setgid sucks, let's replace it" struck me as being both
an order and completely unjustified. It was this that I was responding
to in my paragraph above: if you want to replace it, show some code.
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