Comments on: Should Linux Go On Weight Watchers?

By: Dean

Dean — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:53:24 +0000

The running kernel shouldn’t really be that big though, for the reason that in a distro shipped, everything is a loadable module, and things that get loaded are typically things that you would use.

The problem that is imaginable is that the kernel includes lots and lots of drivers for many different things in addition to …well doing what a kernel does, and it must be difficult to manage all that code.

All things considered, if you make a list of all the things that is supported in the vanilla kernel and then look at the equal size of windows XP providing the same functionality, then start to add all the drivers to XP that are supported by Linux, the joke only really becomes about how user friendly Linux is when it comes to Linux 95, Linux XP and Linux Vista. If 20 years pass and I install Linux, and it takes less room to run the kernel than Vista then I won’t be at all supprised.

The question of managing all that code still stands though.. as it would for any OS.

Outside of kernel development, things sort of had to bloat. You can run on very little ram using tools that give you graphics with a low overhead, but as soon as you need firefox you’lle be screwed… proabably have a memory leak from it too.

By: Ron Schenone

Ron Schenone — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 01:16:17 +0000

mhz – thanks for the chuckle

By: mhz

mhz — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:39:55 +0000

Ok, so you’ve got the beginning of bloat. Now you keep adding all of the ideas and features that people request, with design and testing originating from all the disparate open source contributors.

You put in enough features that you can convince *regular* people to like it, then Voila!, you have Linux 95.

You make it usable for corporations, along with good plug and play, and Voila!, you’ll have Linux XP.

By now you realize that in order to service all those requests, you’ve sacrificed some security, so you go back and revamp that, but no one likes it. Voila!, you have Linux Vista.

I think I’ll wait for Linux 7.

By: Polopolo

Polopolo — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:10:42 +0000

I think I need to agree, but Linux is better then Windows if we talk about this subject.
It’s true that we get more problems when more lines and idea’s get’s added, and that it will slow down PC’s sometimes. But comparing it with Windows, I think Linux has by far nothing to fear.