Self-contained executable for any Linux x86_64 distribution

[Lutz Vieweg]

On 03/03/2013 08:55 PM, Dirk Hohndel wrote:
>> Where in the linux-X.Y.Z/.config file would I find a "language" setting
>> for the OS? :-)
>
> Oh boy. You are trying really hard to misunderstand me, are you?

I'm just wondering how the Linux kernel, which I think is essential
to every Linux distribution, would output localized messages while
booting. :-)

> The language in which the UI of your OS is running. Which I assume for
> you is twm, correct?

"The UI" is a somewhat blurry category, I use fvwm2 (the greatest
window manager ever made, which is still under development today,
and which has far more features than I could ever have wished for!).

But my "UI" is mostly xterm - I use fvwm2 to move/resize windows or
to switch virtual desktops, but when I start software, I do this
from a command line.

I've had plenty of opportunity to try other "UI"s, from the Amiga OS
(where I preferred the "wshell" over other means of starting software),
HP-UX (where the nightmare of CDE survived only a few days of trying
before being replaced by fvwm2), WindowsNT (where even the ugly "cmd"
is quicker than other UIs) to Android, which I consider to be useful
only for clicking through some Web videos.
Nothing, really nothing is nearly as efficient as a command line
with a good keyboard, for generic purposes.
Sure, for cutting videos or processing pictures, colorful GUIs
are, indeed, useful, but I consider those part of the application, not
part of the operating system.

> Any modern packaged OS asks you exactly that question at install time.

And yet, that setting would still have to be stored somewhere.
And while I know of "/etc/localtime", I have not seen an equivalent
regarding language.


> I'm at this point reasonably certain that you run some "built from
> scratch" 1994-style personal OS using a Linux kernel... :-)

I am actually considering to change to "Linux from scratch" or
"Arch Linux" or "Gentoo" the next time I feel like a major update,
because all those other Linux Distros seem to increasingly expose
that "You, the puny user, shall not know what magic happenes in here
behind the curtain!" attitude, that I detest...

Regards,

Lutz Vieweg