On 07/06/2017 07:14 AM, Ralf Mardorf wrote: >> On Thursday, July 06, 2017 10:04 AM, Roger wrote: >>> End users should not have to face such an obscure problem. > > OTOH "end users" should consider that even a user-friendly Linux distro > such as Ubuntu with it's flavours, such as Xubuntu, still is a Linux > distro. [snip excellent arguments]
I think you may have misunderstood the problem. It's not an argument over proprietary vs free software; it's a simple misunderstanding by the designer[s] of the setup routines. When installing Linux for the first time on older machines, it sets up /boot TOO SMALL for modern long-term usage. I don't know what fraction it uses in its calculations, but as an example, on this ancient Dell Latitude D810 with an 80GB hard drive, /boot is 236MB or about 0.3%. Modern Linux is now so reliable that kernel upgrades can safely be performed by non-expert end users, and the lifetime of machines means that many more such upgrades are likely to occur over the life of the machine than was the case in the past. I would argue that a slightly larger /boot partition is a now necessity on machines with smaller disks, even though it leaves a little less space for / I agree with Roger that the end user should not have to face the problem of /boot filling up over the lifetime of the machine (at least until the decision is made to wipe and reinstall rather than upgrade in place). At least a properly-designed application should be available to handle the case. The end user should of course take an interest in system performance and management, but we have to admit to ourselves that many of them will not, and we need to stop hiding our heads in the sand and pretending that every Linux user is going to be a trained sysadmin. If we want to attract more users to Linux, we need to provide robustness even at the edge. The problem of /boot filling up is currently beyond the μ ± 2σ boundary of Linux's usability, and it would be nice to aim to extend that boundary to the μ ± 3σ mark. ///Peter -- xubuntu-users mailing list xubuntu-users@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-users
