…and of course, this news is getting mixed reactions from the Linux nerds…
Back when I used Windows, I remember the BSOD’s being about as useful to me as someone pointing in opposite directions saying “he/she/they went that way.” So long as the new Linux blue screens provide info that’s actually useful in diagnosing the problem(s), I see no issues with this. [shrugs]
Do they have to be blue though? We all have collective PTSD from getting Windows BSODs.
Yeah, I totally get that, I have really bad memories myself.
If it’s an ncurses/similar interface that enables keyboard navigation through dmesg/journalctl, and provides info that allows us to properly diagnose it, I can see this being useful.
But yeah, I’ll admit that simply saying “BSOD’s are coming to Linux” without additional info about the implementation does bring feelings of dread in me.
Yep. I agree. And it looks like anything that makes it to
LOG_EMERGwill be shown on the screen as well as a QR code to look things up with. Seems like it’ll be pretty useful, honestly.
- I hope it’s not blue for heavens sake
- I hope it’s actually useful because Windows bsod is not at all.
- Systemd adding yet more stuff to it’s repertoire which I don’t think anyone asked for.
I don’t mind it being blue, any high contrast color will do, though. As for usefulness, when it happens, you’ll get a QR code to look things up with and be shown anything that made it to
LOG_EMERGwhich is pretty cool. And systemd being fairly modular, you can probably just turn it off, assuming you use a distro that enables it.I’m sure someone asked for it. Linux is my favourite system, but it’s corporations who contribute the most to it. I presume that that gives them more influence.
There are WAY more free lance devs working on Linux than there are corporations - thankfully
The biggest contributors to linux (the kernel), are corporations: https://news.itsfoss.com/huawei-kernel-contribution/
Is it the case that individual devs add up to a greater total than those? I really hope so. Regardless, surely someone is asking for this stuff or it wouldn’t have found investment.
That’s what I mean. There are thousands of people worldwide submitting bug fixes and improvements. Plus when I say “Linux” I don’t only mean the kernel. I’m taking about GNU + Linux - desktops, libraries, applications etc. These are all part of what makes a distro possible. And all of that is largely done by normal Devs for free.
Even people like the Mint Team who make the Cinnamon desktop are doing it for free. They get donations but that’s not a salary and when they started the project they had no donations.
Same for Debian. I don’t think anyone at Debian gets paid.
And let’s not forget the entire GNU piece was done for free by Richard Stallman and friends. Without that there wouldn’t be distros as we know them today.
The kernel is only a bunch of drivers that talks to hardware (mouse, keyboard, usb devices etc). That’s it! On its own it’s useless. The GNU part is the OS and the kernel just tells the OS what hardware is connected and how to talk to it.
As long as it can be the same colour as the terminal there’s literally no reason to Frank out and write sensationalized headlines. Even if it was hard coded blue it’s not from windows. The name is obviously a reference but isn’t going to have m$ code or somehow make the kernel worse. It also requires a log level config so any existing os install likely won’t be affected unless you do it yourself.
