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diff --git a/_archive/desktop-unix.md b/_archive/desktop-unix.md index 29784e0..2ae7c33 100644 --- a/_archive/desktop-unix.md +++ b/_archive/desktop-unix.md @@ -8,59 +8,36 @@ layout: post The Unix operating system project appears to have started in 1969 at Bell Labs. Something resembling contemporary Unix-like systems may have been developed in 1973 when Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson rewrote the Unix kernel in C. Both of -these important milestones, unfortunately, predate me by a number of years. - -Nevertheless, operating systems created in the image of Unix and, more -importantly, that inherit its philosophy, have survived. Linux and OpenBSD are +these important milestones predate me by some years. Nonetheless, operating +systems that preserve the Unix philosophy have survived. Linux and OpenBSD are two such systems that I am personally familiar with. -Operating systems like OpenBSD and Linux are free and open-source alternatives -to commercial operating systems such as Apple macOS and Microsoft Windows. -OpenBSD is developed by a group of hackers led by Theo de Raadt. Linux is -community-driven, although, increasingly and ironically, under the stewardship -of corporations such as IBM and Microsoft. - -Commercial operating systems, and the corporations behind them, are becoming -increasily hostile towards their users. Viewing their users merely as a means -to an end, the unbridled harvesting of personal data for targetted advertising, -influencing the behavior of the masses, and training generative neural networks -has become their primary objective. the book 'The Age of Surveillance -Capitalism' by Professor Shoshana Zuboff documents in detail unassailable -evidence and poignant consequences of the surveillance activities by these -corporations. - -Conversely, Unix-like operating systems are open to the user to use them as -they deem fit. They do not spy on their users, sell hidden agendas, and some, -like OpenBSD, do not show commercial interests whatsoever. The following is a -screenshot of my custom Arch Linux setup in 2020. It uses X display server and -i3 for window management, Urxvt terminal emulator made translucent with the -help of the Xcompmgr compositor. +The following is a screenshot of my Arch Linux setup from 2020. It uses X +display server and i3 for window management. The urxvt terminal emulator is +made translucent using the Xcompmgr compositor.  -The following is an equivalent setup on OpenBSD from my 2024 desktop: +The following is a screenshot of my OpenBSD laptop from 2024:  This degree of customization is impossible with commercial operating systems. -The operating system vendor sets firm boundaries around how the machine should -be used. As a consequence, the user is forced to suffer slow animations, -arrangement of windows, and blatant infringements of privacy. +The vendor sets firm boundaries about how the machine should be used. -The conceptual elegance and technological superiority of Unix-like operating +The conceptual elegance and architectural supremacy of Unix-like operating systems lie in how programs developed independently come together to accomplish -complex tasks. For instance, to read and reply to an HTML email on OpenBSD, -Mutt, my email client, requests credentials from Pass, which retrieves -credentials and requests GPG to decrypt them. With the decrypted credentials -Mutt fetches the email, opens the Lynx browser to render the HTML content. To -reply, I press Shift+R key, which opens Vim, the text editor I use for all my -text editing tasks. I prepare the reply and press 'y' to dispatch it. - -The entire process of handing control from one program to another is seamless -and instantaneous. The magic is in the fact each of these programs are -developed by different programmers, without so much as exchanging an email to -make sure that they can interoperate. In fact, none of these programs were -designed to interoperate for the specific use case of sending an email. The -interoperability is a direct consequence of how Unix was designed. +complex tasks. For instance, to read an HTML email, I may use Mutt, an email +client. Mutt would request credentials for my email account from Pass, a +password manager, which in turn uses GPG to decrypt them before handing them +over to Mutt. Mutt would then authenticate and fetch the email and delegate the +rendering of the email to Lynx a web browser. The chaining of different tools +resembles a sofware symphony. + +Each of these programs were developed by different programmers (at times +decades apart), without an explicit intent for them to interoperate. +The interoperability is a direct consequence of the Unix engineering +philosophy. Engineers generations apart have kept that tradition alive (like +a cathedral built by many generations). Files: [dotfiles.tar.gz](dotfiles.tar.gz) |