this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2024
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Linux

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 140 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 weeks ago (7 children)

I can’t believe they used this as a pro for their distro…

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I am currently only on Linux on my Steam Deck and I do have two RPi's (though I don't actively use them) so I don't have personal current knowledge of differences between Snap, Flatpak, and App Image beyond that A: Snap always brings up lots and lots of hate in comments and B: is from Canonical.

But is it possible that they might choose to use Snap for having more program options due to Ubuntu being such a "mainstream" distro? I know lots and lots of programs do release Flatpaks, but are there more of them or does Snap have more? Real question since I am aware of how heated some threads get with folks being really "fuck Snap" or "it is fine." Mostly just curious since I am more and more likely to move my main PC to Linux as my main OS after Windows 10 is dead.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Snap doesn't just bring lots of hate in comments it also brings a lot of bloat in your system which is a big no in Linux community. Another thing is canonical is going out of their way to force snap. In Ubuntu even if you do apt install it is installing snap packages.

I'm not sure if there are more snap packages than flatpaks or .deb/.rpm but most Linux users are competent enough to either add custom repos or follow simple build instructions to build from source.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago

It says possibly snap, so we can hope...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

What is so hated about snaps? I’ll admit I haven’t used Ubuntu since they started using snaps, but I don’t understand the hate about them in the Linux community.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The place to get snaps is proprietary and exclusive.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

Oh… yeah I see the issue.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 2 weeks ago

I use Karch, btw.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Burn Snap out of there and I'm in.

Edit: looks like they're not putting much towards snaps, it's mostly Flatpak and systemd-sysext. I'm good with that.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

This article is far too hypey. One dude has started this initiative and needs people to work on his concept to get it off the ground. I'm not opposed to a red-hat free immutable system, but this one is so far from maturity this article is selling a first drawing like an almost finished product. Remind me in two years how this went.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Harald, the main architect behind it is already running it as his daily driver. Many others (myself included) are already testing it in VMs and on spare hardware with only very minor papercut issues to be resolved.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

Sounds great! I'll have a look once the user infrastructure is in place.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

The distro is designed to be a bulletproof, highly user-friendly operating system that showcases the best of KDE technology—a system that KDE can confidently recommend to casual users and hardware manufacturers.

So it looks like there will finally be a distribution that Windows, Mac, and ChromeOS users can jump to and just start using without having to learn much and with a much better and more familiar GUI than GNOME.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 weeks ago

I think gnome is working on the same sort of thing, read here.

I'm glad to see both going for an immutable os with flatpaks. It's so much more user friendly for the average person and if you are more technically inclined distrobox makes it a breeze to use it like a regular linux desktop.

I hope both do well

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Ooo damn that sounds exactly what I'd like to try.

On the other hand I feel like I'm too old for this shit. My system works fine, I understand everything, and things rarely break and never in an unrecoverable way.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (17 children)

I thought we all agreed that "immutable" is a confusing term and that we should call it "atomic"

edit: I was wrong

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

What does atomic mean in this sense? That seems more confusing than immutable.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

It means a change either applied completely and successfully, or not at all (think "atomic transactions" in databases).

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

Atomic in software refers to an operation that cant be interrupted because it happens in one step. This one of the big selling points of atomic or immutable distros. Your system will not be left in a broken state by cancelling an update because updates do not take multiple steps, unlike traditional distros.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I disagree, because they are not the same thing.

Immutable means read only root.

Atomic means that updates are done in a snapshotted manner somehow. It usually means that if an update fails, your system is not in a half working state, but instead will be reverted to the last working state, and that updates are all or nothing.

I create a btrfs snapshot before updates on my Arch Linux system. This is atomic, but not immutable.*

There is also "image based" which distros like ublue (immutable, atomic) are, but Nixos (also immutable and atomic) are not.

*only really before big updates tbh, but I know some people do configure snapshits before all updates.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

Fedora has pushed for the change by rebranding their immutable distros as Fedora Atomic Desktops, and these are likely the most popular immutable distros. Bazzite's homepage also describes the distro as atomic, but never mentions the term immutable.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

Not all. Red Hat started this by naming their immutable distributions with "atomic" (but then not consistently...). Some people agreed, but not everyone.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Maybe they'll fix the sddm custom theming? It's currently broken on all immutables and doesn't allow custom themes.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

Ingl, this sounds like exactly the thing I want. Immutability aside, this is how I use EndeavourOS right now, but more sophisticated.

I'm sold on it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Makes sense that it includes snap given that KDE officially supports their apps packaged as snaps, unlike Gnome.

If I recall correctly, aren’t they going for an Arch base? I assume they’re going to be enabling AppArmor so that the snap sandboxing is mostly working, except for the patches Canonical have failed to upstream so far.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

I use Fedora KDE but this one sounds like exactly what I need. I primarily use Linux for software dev and web browsing and Windows for gaming and Office.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

Alright I am installing this

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