RFC: initialize /dev/urandom, is it necessary? Can we do it in a better way?

[Roberto A. Foglietta]

On Thu, 21 Sept 2023 at 09:24, Roberto A. Foglietta
<roberto.foglietta at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> I consider this interface one of the brokest seen in the UNIX domain
> ever. Despite this, I am reluctant in wishing that it would be
> completely changed because breaking the back-compatibility with
> 30years old production systems is something that goes beyond a survey.
> Everything can be improved and enhanced, obviously and I hope this
> will happen for this interface as well, in a smooth and
> back-compatible way.
>

This, as long as we are writing about computer information technology,
Linux in this case. If you ask me about society, my opinion is
completely different. The reason is pretty simple: computers are
"machines" and until the day they will develop an AGI and show to be a
sentient self-conscious entityîes, they have no rights but just work
to do - no matter how this work is broken or a burden. Put your chips
on fire! When we talk about society, we are speaking about people,
about human rights, about giving a meaning to our development and
progress (aka society). The two concepts "technology" and "people" are
not even comparable.

I wrote this because I had the sensation that someone confused the two
aspects. Some people never change their mind, whatever. While we can
always reinstall an old machine to update it. The two concepts
"people" and "technology" are way different in good and bad shapes.
KISS works for IT, but rarely it works for people. etc. etc. - Just to
clarify and to avoid that someone can leverage my writing to extend
their meaning out of their specific context to influence other
people's opinion or trying to understand my "under the hood" thinking.
There is no doubt that I always was, I am and I will always be in
favour of progress (a change for the better, a solid true improvement
based on facts and not just opinions) when we are talking about people
and society, no matter what, no matter who.