Mike McCarty wrote:
> I'm a little at a loss to explain this thread's existence.
>
> # du -hs /etc
> 61M /etc
> # exit
> logout
>
> Ok, it makes sense to move /home or /tmp to another disc, but
> who cares about /etc? It's less than 100M on my machine.
Sorry, Mike, but that's enough of an excuse for me to go off at a
tangent. It's not aimed at you...
> I'm a little at a loss to explain this thread's existence.
"Because I find it intellectually interesting."
This is Linux. It's based on Unix, a system designed to give the user
huge amounts of flexibility over the way it works. And it's
re-implemented by hackers who wanted to make their computers do what
they want them to do.
Now there are some things that are difficult: fixing some bugs, getting
specifications to certain bits of hardware, stopping laws that take away
freedoms, making software that does Just What The User Wants, or making
a 486 do two billion instructions per second. But within that, Linux
should be a system that a technically-minded person can understand, fix,
and make it do what *they* want.
So if there are things you *can't* do, that's irritating. And a
challenge.
So I, personally, find it interesting to consider the ways in which /etc
could be put on a separate filesystem. Actually doing so would be stupid
(*most* of the time). But I seriously value the fact that so much is
possible. Demonstrating that the absurd is possible demonstrates how
much reasonable stuff is possible.
Because this is *my* system. Not Fedora's, not Linus', not Microsoft's,
and *certainly* not Hollywood's. I may choose to utilise Fedora's
packages, Fedora's updates, and Fedora's way of doing things for my
convenience. But I am free to do things my way whenever I want.
James.
--
E-mail address: james | Am I alone in receiving so much junk mail? Can these
@westexe.demon.co.uk | people not get it into their thick heads that I do not
| *want* a Chinese boat?
| Yours sincerely, Mrs Trellis. -- ISIHAC, BBC Radio 4
