"Rainer H. Rauschenberg" <rainerh@???> writes:
> On Thu, 4 Feb 2016, Simon Hobson wrote:

[...]

> Besides that I don't think mounting EFI-vars r/w is a good idea as a
> system default and I don't think the user not having read all the
> relevant documentation (spread out over various places)
> is to blame when system behaviour *changes* in such a drastic way
> (bricking hardware by deleting "files").

'Virtual filesystems' have existed since at least 1985 (SunOS 2.0) and
Linux has supported various types of virtual filesystems for a really
long time. Consequently, there's no "system behaviour which changed in a
drastic way" here. What precisely happens when some program executes an
unlink system call depends on the filesystem implementation. Even
leaving this aside, there's a very simple rule-of-thumb here, namely,
"if you don't know what it's good for then *don't* delete it" (unless
you're making an experiment and you're willing to accept that the
outcome was caused by you and not by the universe being nasty to you).
?
Random story which fits in nicely here: Once upon a time in the past, I
witnessed a Real Man[tm] being conquered by a computerized spin
dryer. Not happy with reading or even following the operating
instructions, he chose to try to beat it into submission by hammering
his fists onto the control panel instead. This caused the machine to
display "Error". Apparently infuriated by that, he hit it more violently
but the display just stubbornly showed this single word. After a while,
the man would tire of the exertion and stop beating the appliance. The
display then changed back to signal that the machine was ready for being
used. He would then randomly press a few buttons but without the
intended effect. Then go back to hitting it. And the display went back
"Error". I witnessed a few cycles before before leaving
laundromat.