
SE: Why is this defense against “It's a Unix system ” not widely implemented? - azeemba
https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/222839/why-is-this-defense-against-its-a-unix-system-not-widely-implemented
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kick
One line in the top reply in particular stuck out to me, because the person
doesn't seem to know what they're talking about, and it highlights how low-
quality Stack Exchange has become over time.

 _(ever built the linux kernel from source? I have; it 's a chore.)_

This demonstrates a complete lack of experience, and seems to be a lie.

Even low-powered, ancient, _phone_ ARM CPUs can compile the kernel in under
two hours:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/7381w3/linux_compili...](https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/7381w3/linux_compiling_times_on_arm_cpus/)

Some recent (though as far as I'm aware, not the most recent, which can
probably do it faster) AMD CPUs can do it in 16 seconds:

[https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-16...](https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-16-Seconds-
AMD-EPYC-2P)

And if you look in the replies of that comment, you'll see the author
comparing installing node.js on _CentOS_ to compiling the kernel.

I'd like to see some genuine conversation on this, but Stack Exchange fails to
deliver.

~~~
Arnt
Well, yes, but you also need to include vendor x's driver and patches for that
thing you have on your embedded system, and you have to consider whether you
want each of the eleventy thousand configuration options.

I'm not complaining. IMO it's much easier to build the kernel than to fix
whatever bug I'll fix next, and I say that without knowing what that next bug
is. Just explaining why it's harder to build the kernel than to add some
third-party blah via one or a few lines of Gradle, which may be his basis for
comparison.

