On Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 3:19 PM, Kurt H Maier <khm-suckl...@intma.in> wrote: > On Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 02:39:43PM +0100, David Tweed wrote: >> Well, yes-and-no. The end user (who in the case of many linux desktops >> and laptops is also the sys admin) may not be aware of how things are >> structured "under the hood", but they can perceive "laptop X spends a >> lot of time doing stuff when I turn it on, while laptop Y is usable >> almost instantly". The only reason I mentioned it (I otherwise try and >> stay out of "religiously" tinted discussions was that there was >> discussion about how to do it but no mention of what the important >> "externally visible" (if you don't like "end-user") goals should be. > > For init systems, speed is a natural consequence of correct design. > Only an incompetent would have to explicitly list it as a design goal.
Maybe I have no claim to real competence..., but I always tend to find that if the software design goals aren't pretty concrete listing even the "obvious" things then either (a) someone else will consider something I find obvious to be a "why do you want that" or (b) someone else's obvious is my "why on earth would you want that". Anyway, here's a comment that I remembered reading the first time round http://lwn.net/Articles/300955/ Note that the point isn't whether fast boot is an important enough goal to impact in other trade-off's (I think it is, others may think it's less important than simplicity), as much as that it's something where it's better to come to an explicit design goal decision.