this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2023
285 points (96.7% liked)

Linux

48332 readers
544 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Using arch but honestly. I don't "like" any of them. Every distro I've ever used has required more setup and maintenance than I would have liked.

I really just want a system that doesn't bork itself on updates and let's me install whatever software I want. You would think that wouldn't be so impossible to find.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I tried debian stable a week or two ago. Had about 4 different showstopper bugs in 3 or so days. It doesn't seem to help much from my limited experience.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Huh. Are you running any kind of exotic setup? What kind of bugs were they? Can you be sure they were Debian bugs and not hardware issues?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yes. I had both actually. Hardware and debian specific bugs, on a clean install from the live iso with barely any packages installed from apt and like 10 flatpaks. I'm a bit exhausted rn to find all the links. But let me find at least the worst one for ya.

This was the most egregious one. essentially. On a fresh install updating was broken. Yeah. It was that bad.

In addition to that there was the amd ftpm stutter. Which isn't necessarily debians fault. But it's still bad.

And I was having screen flickers. Not sure why. I was tired enough of it bugging out that I just gave up on the stable dream and went back to arch.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

nixos solves this problem by allowing you to boot the last working system state prior to updates. and as a bonus you can manage all of your computers from a single config in a git repo. bit of a learning curve but it takes most of the annoyance out of linux for me.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

nixos solves this problem by allowing you to boot the last working system state prior to updates

I kinda don't want that. I want a system that doesn't break in the first place...

My experience with nix was very short lived. It mostly consisted of me wondering how to install something and people telling me to package it myself for a day of two til I gave up.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

updates invariably break things, whatever we do. the safety net of being able to roll back makes taking updates a lot more palatable.

yeah, like I said it has a learning curve so it's not for everyone but it's been a lifesaver for me so I thought I'd point it out.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Indeed. Maybe I'll give it another try if/when arch botches itself again.

The idea of a reproducible system is honestly great.