Submission + - fallacy of function within Linux systems
Gearoid_Murphy writes: "I am an admin for a beowulf processing cluster. Time and again, I am struck by the fragmented nature of the functions of these systems. There is never a coherent strategy for providing a specific function, take authentication, for example. We currently maintain several seperate indpendent systems for controlling access on authentication, one for wireless access, one for firehol trusted networks, one for nfs, a set of netgroups, nssswitch configs and pam configs. Many of these systems have considerable overlap in function (ldap and nss, for example). I would like to hear what people make of this situation.
Should operating systems be prepared with coherent functions like this in mind?, are we simply observing the limitations of current operating system implementations with respect to todays complex multi-user, multi-device, multi-function systems.
Is this a symptom of open source applications, which simply look after their own functions and ignore the bigger picture?, can the same be said for commercial systems?. Should there be an attempt to develop a well defined standard of functions within the context of operating systems, within which applications would provide functionality but never in a fragmented isolated way?, is this just a pipe dream?"