The fact that one can install a package in some OS means that somewhere, one or more people sat down and wrote a recipe for building and packaging it, and then hopefully performed some minimal QA on the final product to make sure it actually works.

This is not trivial, particularly not if multiple versions of a compiler may need to coexist (because of other packages depending on a particular version), and it needs to be done for each combination of compiler version and OS.

To me, examples like: "just run ", expecting a package to just magically install itself on some OS are the symptoms of a cargo-cult.

Rather, I think that using containers is more like outfitting a cargo container with a fully stocked and staffed workshop, then shipping the container and personnel to where the client needs it to be. The client then only needs to supply the storage space for the container and the goods that need processing (a shared directory in this particular case) and wait for the finished result. Sure, some of the workers may not speak your language, they may use different tools, but until (if?) the workshop gets rebuilt and staffed on "native soil", the inconvenience should be acceptable.

Wrong (unless proven otherwise).

From the Shield Studies FAQ[1]:

> What data do Shield Studies normally collect?

> [...]

> Mechanism:

>

> - at STARTUP, SHUTDOWN, INSTALL, UNINSTALL, - send a `shield-study` packet containing the Unified Telemetry Environment.

As was stated before, users report that they have had this extension pushed to their browser without their prior consent to sending any telemetry data.

[1]: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Shield/Shield_Studies

There are distros, Void Linux (which I am using right now) for one, which ship without pulseaudio (or systemd for that matter) installed by default, thank goodness.

Non-US user here, my Firefox got it, too.

The assignment was to build a traffic light simulator, set the whole thing running, change the traffic lights as a result of switch inputs acting as sensors and a simulated interval timer.

Some students were baffled by this (lectures hadn't caught up with lab assignments at that point): how could you build a small processor using only logic and an EPROM? There's no memory or registers to keep state!

This is what differentiates combinatorial logic from sequential logic: feedback. Use some of the EPROM's data outputs along with logic gates and switch outputs (using the multiplexers / demultplexers) as address inputs to the same EPROM.

Sweet memories of solving Karnaugh maps, Quine-McCluskey minimization, logic hazard mitigation, etc. Good times.

No, I don't want to subscribe to your newsletter, I don't want email notifications, I don't want to become a member (at least not until I've read a few posts first).

Make it possible for me to make those choices my global defaults and I'll be a very happy user.

See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1449987/building-a-so-tha... for more information.

This one has been around a bit longer, too, and despite its name is now much more than just a pretty face for GDB but rather a full cross-platform development environment which has IntelliSense everywhere, handles the installation of toolchains and BSPs for embedded targets, building kernel modules (with VisualKernel addon), etc.

Much mischievous grinning ensued as I showed to my colleagues how i could "escape" from our allotted home directory and look at directories of some of the other clients, before I reported it to the hosting company. I don't know if they ever fixed that loophole...

Sorry to rain on your parade, but there is _no_ official Arch Linux image on Docker[1], as you can easily verify[2]. Use at your own risk whatever Arch Linux image you happen to find on Docker Hub, such as this one[3]. It might work or it might break, but it ain't official.

[1]: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=214973

[2]: https://hub.docker.com/explore/

[3]: https://hub.docker.com/r/base/archlinux/

(Hint: those are all visual or hybrid textual/visual programming languages.)