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by darkarmani 4574 days ago
> RedHat Fedora makes no apologies for dropping legacy support. Heck, they threw out ifconfig in Fedora 19.

WTF? Is that because Linux was becoming too easy to use? They have to keep changing it up, so the certification classes have new material to teach. Why wouldn't they keep the command around and wrap whatever re-invented mousetrap replaces it so millions of people can keep typing ifconfig?
2 comments
astrodust 4574 days ago
It's because change.

Change is how you abandon things that are holding you back. It's how you get rid of the various albatrosses, of which there are many, and clean up the environment for new users.

ifconfig is absolutely not easy to use.

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mcpherrinm 4574 days ago
ifconfig was deprecated on linux long ago. While it is compatible with other unixes, it doesn't really map onto the capabilities of the modern linux stack well.

`ip` really is a better tool, and you're doing yourself a disservice if you're not using it, especially if you have anything more than the basic single IP/default gateway network.

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darkarmani 4573 days ago
> ifconfig was deprecated on linux long ago. While it is compatible with other unixes, it doesn't really map onto the capabilities of the modern linux stack well.

Long ago? Centos 6.4 still has it. My Mac (BSD) has it. I never suggested that it is stupid to add software (ip) that is better, but why would they deliberately remove it when it is such an expected command and works across other unixes? I have trouble believing that it consumes much disk space.

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astrodust 4572 days ago
CentOS is not removing deprecated things and Fedora is. This is the difference here.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ifconfig#Current_status

"Modern Linux distributions are in the process of deprecating ifconfig and route..."

Deliberately removing something means you don't have to maintain it any more and can spend your time improving the better tool rather than bug-fixing the legacy one.

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darkarmani 4572 days ago
I understand improving, but it wouldn't take much effort to make it user friendly, by wrapping over the ifconfig command for at least the reporting functionality. It could still call ip underneath.

There are ways to handle it that make it backwards compatible and user friendly without only a little extra effort. It's not a sexy task, so who cares about usability.

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