Self-contained executable for any Linux x86_64 distribution

[Dirk Hohndel]

On Mar 3, 2013, at 12:17 PM, Lutz Vieweg wrote:

> 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.

Idiotically (and please don't get me started about this), Linux distributions
tend to store this in environment variables...

>> 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...

Sadly I have to agree. The whole "we know better than you" thing is
royally pissing me off…

I run Debian or Fedora or (sometimes) openSUSE - but that's mostly
a convenience thing. Just as I am writing this on a Mac as that's the
27" computer that's most conveniently accessible when I'm at home…

/D

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