On Sat, Jan 02, 2016 at 01:04:58PM +0000, Simon Hobson wrote:
> Clarke Sideroad <clarke.sideroad@???> wrote:
>
> > I see little choice but to make the merged bin option available, after
> > all this is all about choice, but for gosh sakes it should not be the
> > default.
>
> The issue - as I see it - is much the same as with systemd. If the upstream stuff adopts it, then it becomes a lot more work to maintain something different. SO having an option of split /bin and /usr/bin is moot if all packages assume they are merged.
> I noted from one of the links posted a comment in the FAQ that "/usr must be mounted early on by initramfs" - which really contradicts common sense in that initrd/initramfs should really only have the minimum required to get / mounted so that the rest can happen from there.
>
> I have worked with Unix systems in the past with separate /usr filesystem (SCO OpenServer 5 - ahh, nostalgia). Back then we had to create a boot and root floppy (yes I know some youngsters have probably never seen one) and I can recall the problems I found making enough room on the root disk to include cpio (so I could read the backup tapes and restore /usr).
> But given that (eg) USB drives are generally not smaller than GBs in size these days, it's hard to make an argument on disk space.

Some of us still boot from floppies.

-- hendrik