Subj : Re: macOS 26
To : boraxman
From : tenser
Date : Thu Dec 04 2025 07:08 am
On 30 Nov 2025 at 12:51a, boraxman pondered and said...
bo> te> I can speak to this a little bit. Two reasons that I see
bo> te> initially include a) code quality and maintainability issues
bo> te> with GNU coreutils, and b) the GNU license. uutils is much
bo> te> better code generally (unit tests!!), and certainly easier to
bo> te> maintain, the project uses modern development practices with
bo> te> respect to review, CI, and so on. And the MIT license makes
bo> te> it much easier to integrate with other projects.
bo> te>
bo> te> The issue with compatibility is real, but I would argue that
bo> te> in some ways this is good: there are already alternative user
bo> te> space implementations of the POSIX and Unix utilities (the
bo> te> BSDs, System V, various commercial Unixes that still exist,
bo> te> and so on). Having diversity in this area forces downstream
bo> te> projects to be a bit cleaner and more disciplined.
bo> te>
bo> te> As for ubuntu switching to uutils? Meh, I'm ambivalent, but
bo> te> that's largely because I think that Canonical is run by a loon.
bo> te>
bo>
bo> I think in some part, the move to Rust is due to zealots who want to
bo> control software, or at least, have some more social control. I don't
bo> trust evangelists, and that is with good reason. Perhaps it is also in
bo> part to undermine software freedom?
Do you have any evidence to support this view point?
