Linux fat/bloated

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Wed, Apr 05, 2006 at 02:11:00AM -0400, Walter Dnes wrote:
>   See article at http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9590-6057456.html where
> Nicholas Negroponte (a fan of linux, if there ever was one) admits the
> obvious; linux needs to be slimmed down.  Here's my take on the root
> cause... too damn many people trying to re-invent perl.  Perl is bad
> enough itself; it's on OK operating system, but it lacks a lightweight
> scripting language.  However, there seem to be a bunch of perl-clones
> springing up all over the place.
> 
>   Install half-a-dozen apps, and you'll get tons of dll's
>   - one app will require that you install perl
>   - another app will require that you install python
>   - another app will require that you install PHP
>   - another app will require that you install QT
>   - another app will require that you install GTK
>   - another app will require that you install Java
>   - another app will require that you install Ruby
> 
> ...and the list goes on and on.  Install several apps, and you're using
> a couple of gigs worth of libraries/dlls.  Launch several apps at once,
> and if you don't have a couple of gigs of RAM to simultaneously hold all
> the dlls and libraries, you'll be swapping big time.  Linux does need a
> dictator to depracate some of the dll-madness.

Actually I think you are entirely wrong.  Linux is so efficient at the
use of memory for shared objects that it only loads one copy no matter
how many programs and users are using it.

The scripting languages are very small, and allow for even smaller
applications, while on windows you would generally get a huge bloated
binary instead which shares nothing with anyone else.

QT and GTK, well yes those are quite bloated and I am not sure why.

Java is just useless bloat in my opinion and should be used for
anything.

I have no problem running perl and python and such on a 486/66 wiht 48M
ram without swapping.  QT and GTK and Java would all be very very bad
for it.  Those are the real problem.  Feel free to avoid all X
applications, or at least any that use anything more than athena
widgets.  Good luck on that.  It's simpler to just not use X, or at
least anything beyong twm/xterm.  Not a bad idea in general though.
Very efficient.

Of course all of these are applications that you can _choose_ to
install.  They are NOT linux (they all run the same way on solaris,
hpux, aix, etc).  If your linux distribution of choice insist on
installing all that by default, maybe you should find a better
distribution that doesn't tell you what to install by default.  So there
may be a problem of bloat in distribution default installs, but that is
not a linux problem.

Len Sorensen
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