Re: [dev] Talk about suckless

From: FRIGN <dev_AT_frign.de>
Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 13:11:22 +0200

On 09/25/2013 02:26 PM, Martin Kopta wrote:
> Hi, I will be giving a talk about suckless project on 6th October [1] for small
> audience (from 10 to 100 people). Talk description is (translated):
>
> "Introduction to ideology of software that smells less and presentation of
> results of the suckless project. Demostration of dwm window manager, terminal
> emulator st, statically linked distribution stali, minimalist web browser surf
> and a few others. This talk is particularly suitable for minimalist hackers
> who crave efficient work environment."
>
> Is there something I absolutely shouldn't forget to mention?
>
> I will post here my presentation slides and maybe even some people questions
> after the talk.
>
> Thanks.
>
> [1] https://www.google.com/calendar/render?eid=bmJzYzU2dmo3Nm1ybjYzM2ExOWNrbGR0aGsgaHJ1c2Vja3kubmV0XzRwYWExYTNiY2hwdTZsOWVlczQxZ2c2dHQwQGc&ctz=Europe/Prague&sf=true&output=xml
>
>

Hi Martin,

in the interest of giving a clear presentation of what stali is about,
you could clear up common misconceptions about static linking and show
why it is better today and why it was disadvantageous in the past.
The key points are:

* static linking in general *
        _security_: The advantage of "higher security" with
        dynamically-linked libraries is a fallacy. Today we're facing
        versioned symbols and ldd-exploits on the one hand and blazing
        fast computers able to recompile binaries in a flash on the
        other.
        
        _speed_: Which one is faster? Refer to the material linked on
        the stali-page. Don't forget to talk about the dynamic linker
        in the Linux-Kernel, which has spread like cancer across other
        Kernel sub-projects.
        Also, don't forget to point out we are planning to use
        non-bloated and segmented static-libraries for stali, which
        allow the binaries to be leaner and faster in most cases.

        Make sure to be well-prepared in regard to this highly
        controversial topic.
        If you plan to introduce your audience to the concepts of
        stali, there sure will be many hackers wondering why static
        linking should be better than the "dynamic-
        linking" de facto standard.

* stali-project *
        Generally speaking, the pages about stali are good enough.
        However, make sure to bring these points in:
        
        _filesystem_: Deprecation of the /usr-dir[1] and why. Reasons
        for building in a chroot-environment and how it works (broadly)

        _init-system_: Another big point. As it's still in concept-
        phase, you could present the ideas we want to bring in.
        An excellent information would be the talk about runit by
        Christian Neukirchen[2].

* dwm, st *
        No problem. For detailed matters, I'd need to see the slides

* surf *
        Not problematic, either. However, it could be interesting to
        reflect on the future plans when it comes to the engine[3]


Generally speaking, I'm glad to hear from people like you who are
presenting and thus popularizing our ideals on software development.

With best regards

FRIGN

[1]: <http://www.tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Filesystem-Hierarchy/html/usr.html>
[2]: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIziZlFHshE>
[3]: <http://lists.suckless.org/dev/1309/17648.html>
Received on Wed Sep 25 2013 - 13:11:22 CEST

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Wed Sep 25 2013 - 15:12:06 CEST