commit: cf2fb4354b4fcf577f6a6cc5377ad5547687545f
parent 02253fb419f5d336f595df2b4406011d35254e33
Author: Drew DeVault <sir@cmpwn.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Feb 2021 15:38:28 -0500
Fix typo
Diffstat:
2 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/content/blog/On-the-traits-of-good-replacements.gmi b/content/blog/On-the-traits-of-good-replacements.gmi
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
This is not always true, but in my experience, it tends to hold up. We often build or evaluate tools which aim to replace something kludgy^Wvenerable. Common examples include shells, programming languages, system utilities, and so on. Rust, Zig, etc, are taking on C in this manner; so too does zsh, fish, and oil take on bash, which in turn takes on the Bourne shell. There are many examples.
-All of these tools are fine in their own respects, but they have all failed to completely supplant the software they’re seeking to improve upon.¹ What these projects have in common are that they expand on the ideas of their predecessors, rather than refining them. A truly great alternative finds the nugget of truth at the center of the idea, cuts out the cruft, and solves the same problem with less.
+
+All of these tools are fine in their own respects, but they have all failed to completely supplant the software they’re seeking to improve upon.¹ What these projects have in common is that they expand on the ideas of their predecessors, rather than refining them. A truly great alternative finds the nugget of truth at the center of the idea, cuts out the cruft, and solves the same problem with less.
This is one reason I like Alpine Linux, for example. It’s not really aiming to replace any distro in particular so much as it competes with the Linux ecosystem as a whole. Alpine does this by being simpler than the rest: it’s the only Linux system I can fit more or less entirely in my head. Compare this to the most common approach: “let’s make a Debian derivative!” It kind of worked for Ubuntu, less so for everyone else. The C library Alpine ships, musl libc, is another example: it aims to replace glibc by being leaner and meaner, and I’ve talked about its success in this respect before.
diff --git a/content/blog/On-the-traits-of-good-replacements.md b/content/blog/On-the-traits-of-good-replacements.md
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ examples.
All of these tools are fine in their own respects, but they have all failed to
completely supplant the software they're seeking to improve upon.[^5] What these
-projects have in common are that they *expand* on the ideas of their
+projects have in common is that they *expand* on the ideas of their
predecessors, rather than *refining* them. A truly great alternative finds the
nugget of truth at the center of the idea, cuts out the cruft, and solves the
same problem with less.
